> From: Christopher Hickman <tophu@xxxxxxx> > > On this note, has anyone ever tried to make giant 'mids out of foam? I had this idea a while ago, but haven't pursued it beyond thinking about it. * Use flat floor foam or camping mat foam (latter is much cheaper). * Cut out each side of a pyramid using a sawtooth "dovetail" edge. ** The angle of the cuts should, ideally, be at the angle of the pyramid face, when upright (whatever that is--something like 17 degrees, right?). This ensures that your dovetails mesh properly, without gaps or crushed foam or both. ** The depth of the dovetail could range from the thickness of the mat (making a "smooth" fit) to a higher depth, which creates a stand-off that more closely emulates the thickness of the plastic pyramids (unlike the cardboard ones I've seen, which all-but-hide same-sized pieces onto which they stack). * If you alternate the sawtooth (left leg starts with "in" while right leg starts with "out") then they will snap together like Legos. The beauty of this is that, if the mat is identical on both sides (which cheap ones are) then your dovetail cuts could actually interlace--the right side of one "face up" is the left side of the other "face down" and so on, alternating--which will maximize the use of your foam. That might, however, be impossible if you make cuts at the face-angle-when-upright (any folks out there really strong either 3D geometry or spacial imagination?). Further, you can transport a full four-stash set in (I bet) the trunk of a compact car, because they can be broken down, reconnected flat, and transported like a stack of foam mats. When you build them into pyramids again, the most you might have to do to hold them together is to push a straight pin into the top and bottom tips of an edge, skewering alternating dovetail teeth but leaving only the smooth head of the pin "touchable" by users. If I had the time, I'd draw up a little something that you could then scale up to regular mat size. But I think the above makes it fairly clear. Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle that, when disassembled, can be reassembled into the pyramids. Maybe someone else could draw up something? Someone with a strong sense of scaling, so the pyramids aren't arbitrarily larger but are of an even "scale" like 8x (the standard, IIRC). I really ought to make this a winter project, to prep for next year's con season. (Great... another project... just what I need right now. I get too many ideas; I should be an independently wealthy dilettante with a small staff of machinists and assistants.) :) Anyhow... it's not much, but it's a start. HTH; David