Hey guys, i recently rebuilt my trap from balsa wood to cardboard the dimensions were off and i wanted to add lights but the problem is it looks cardboard-y . is there anything i can get to seal the edges and make the ribs dissapear on the sides? i brushed some modge podge on it and it made it a littel stronger but you can still see edges any help would be appriciated thanks in advance
Hey man, alls I can think of to fill the sides would be some kind of putty or wood filler, used it to hide joins and nasties when building my stuff.
as for getting rid of the ribs on the sides, perhaps try automotive spray putty, it is a high build spray on putty/filler, comes in an aerosol can, and not only will it fill in the ridges creating a flat surface (with some sanding of course!) it also provides a really good paintable surface. some of the parts I use are balsa or MDF, which kinda soaks up paint and doesnt give a very good finish, but I blast it with this stuff, give it a sand, and it paints up like a sealed surface instead of wood. 
Anywho, that is prob what I would do, hope it helps!
Dave
For the amount of work it will take to fill and sand the edges of the cardboard to a “seamless” level i’d suggest just starting over with a better material like styrene or foamcore.
nonagon made her proton pack out of cardboard. to get rid of the bumps, she worked with mod podge and wood putty. it will require alot of sanding, but its entirely possible.
even fiberglass resin with out the fiber mat is a good way to do it.
You don’t use corrugated cardboard for surface finish, you have to use a smooth board.
Look for some mat-board which is very smooth. you can find it in any arts/crafts stores. Framing stores also dump a ton of left over pieces. I made my entire spartan armor with free mat-board from the recycling dumpster at one of these stores.
If you can’t find any, you can always buy those cheap spiral notebooks at walmart and use the covers over the corrugated cardboard.
thanks guys for all the useful info i did cardboard as iam a mover and have access to an abundance of it for free i just take it out of the dumpster at work . and the parts i used are from the one in my profile i got from MMM and just glued it and used nuts and bolts with washers inside to keep it from tearing out of the sides of the cardboard i might try the wood filler and sanding for right now unless it totally sux then ill scrap it and wait for the matty one lol that will replace my cardboard one anyhow ill post a pic up and you guys can tell me what you think for a few hours on saterday night
it will be too much work for the result you’ll get with wood filler or even bondo. Cardboard isn’t rigid enough
Im using cardboard for mine, but not corrugated. I am using a layer of resin on the outside and chop fiber on the inside for strength. Then i will spot putty it, stand it smooth and hopefully paint it.
There are pics on my thread ‘my scaled down ghost trap’ if they help
hey thanks for the tip lille i appriciate it . that is a really good idea using the plastic on the sides .