Honeycomb fiberglass hull...

[CDK]

Originally Posted by Jimbo1490

I'm not sure any of this has a shred of practicality, but it was an interesting thought experiment, anyway

Jimbo

It sure was.
Wasps and hornets are sloppy workers when compared to bees. They lack the self esteem to make all cells the same size.

But there is another remarkable difference. The wasps chew on pieces of wood and make paper cells. And they also have a gland to impregnate the paper so their nests are more or less waterproof.

[gonzo]

Ok, so put a layer of fiberglass over a 70 foot boat, grow wasp nests over it and then fiberglass again.

[Jimbo1490]

I just thought of a possible way to make practical use of arthropod-created honeycomb!

Turning again to the more uniform honeybee product, we induce our six-legged friends to build their honeycomb onto our desired substrate. Once built, we evict them and remove the honey, while leaving the cells undisturbed. We then cast the cells in plaster. Upon cure, the whole is heated to melt out the wax, leaving a plaster mold of the honeycomb structure which we can then cast in metal or possibly other material. Thus we can create cast-in-place honeycomb over a complex shape.

Practicality: Plausible

Jimbo

[powerabout]

honeycomb cores have been around for years
water skis use aluminium honeycomb as do F1 cars
race yachts use nomex honeycomb
can use either
This all came from aircraft