Although this is a simple project, it’s taking forever to get it done. Part of it is the recurrence of an old back injury, part of it is how bloody hot it’s been (perfect for solar ovens…), but most of it has been sloth on my part.
Today I’m cutting out the body of the oven and making up the foil/corrugated cardboard insulation.
I’ve been stumped on this last bit because I couldn’t think of a good way to adhere foil to cardboard without using some sort of contact cement. The last thing I want is chemical fumes from the adhesive to flavour my food! I’ve heard of using flour paste as an alternative so at least any fumes emitted would be non-toxic, but aluminium foil just is not porous so as to allow a good bond.
When I mentioned this to my wife she says, “Why don’t you just wrap the foil around the cardboard without glue?”
Of course, she is right.
I was trying to solve the wrong problem. I thought the problem was how to adhere foil to cardboard, when really all that needs to be done is for foil and cardboard to stay put relative to each other. Wrapping and crimping the foil will accomplish that much quicker, cleaner, and easier than anything I’d contemplated.
Who says you need an engineering degree to solve engineering problems? Sometimes, as in this instance, the degree can get in the way.
