Dirt cheap thermal barrier

[cweiss]

I thought I'd post my quick & dirty thermal barrier mod for the Rostock. It's helped quite a bit in terms of minimizing issues with drafts and the interior temp seems to run ~10 degrees warmer. YMMV based on materials.

Anyway, it's a shower curtain, some metal perforated strip (often called "plumbers tape" - not teflon tape though), some zip-ties and a couple of bits of velcro. It turns out the screws used to hold the smoked plastic pieces in place just fit through the holes in the plumber's tape, so it was easy to thread a long strip around the inside and force it over the screws, making for a pretty stable perforated ribbon around the rim of the top. I then picked up a heavy duty vinyl clear shower curtain, cut it to size, and zip-tied it to the plumbers tape. Some velcro closures to hold the front shut and viola! Works quite well.
I was able to extend the plumbers tape out so that the curtain doesn't contact the carriages.
[img]http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w37 ... lpx3hf.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w37 ... xk6vyi.jpg[/img]

[Eric]

I understand how the term applies, but plumbers tape makes me think of the teflon stuff. I'm more familiar with the term "hanger iron". More generically, it's a galvanized steel pipe hanger, comes in rolls, and is pretty cheap. It can also be found in plastic, also cheap. Or copper, not-so-cheap.

[cweiss]

Thanks for the correction - You're right, "Hanger Iron" seems to be a much better search term (Home Depot calls it "Hanger Strap"). Looks like the going rate is $3-$4 for 10ft (Lowes was $3). I just had a big roll lying around anyway since I'd been using it for other projects. I already had velcro and zip-ties as well. I think the shower curtain was ~$9 (I went for the extra heavy duty).

I experimented with rare earth magnets to hold it up as well (since I had a bunch from another project), but the zip ties just ended up being easier to manage. Make sure to use a long single run of the hanger iron for stability (rather than cutting short lengths for each opening). You'll also need sheet metal scissors to cut it (be careful, it's sharp stuff - gloves are good, m'kay).

[Eaglezsoar]

Excellent idea on the cheap. Thanks for sharing with the forum!