What kind of glue are people using for Blue or Pink foam to foam connections? I used DAP and after 24 hours its still wet and no good tight glue joint. It seems no air in there. Same with carpenters glue. Please post if you have used something and gotten good results. Hot glue?
Pilot,
I have used both latex caulk (no silicone) and thinned wood glue (mixed with water) with great success. My question to you: on the pink foam there is a clear plastic film - did you remove the film? That might be the problem with it not setting over such a long time. When using caulk, it grabs pretty quickly and cures in a few hours. I usually stack magazines, catalogs or the like to hold the pieces together while the caulk is drying.
I hope this helps,
Don Z.
I use a low temp hot glue gun by WS. I use latex caulk on the table parts but it takes a day or two to dry. The hot glue gun works fast and holds good enough but can be torn loose whan you change your mind. NOTE. A regular hot glue gun will melt the foam.
I started my layout using the Liquid Nails water based adhiesive and have also used Woodland Scenics Foam Tack Glue. Good luck.
When I first started, I used liquid nail. It worked OK. However enough people on this forum convinced me to try plain old elmer’s glue. It works even better. Much less expensive and eaiser to clean up. I agree with the comment about “did you remove the thin layer of plastic”.
The elmer’s glue set totaly up within 24 hours. Except for the piece I forgot to remove the thin plastic cover. I tried to glue one piece of foam without the plastic to another piece with the plastic. Two weeks latter I needed to cut a section out because I changed my plan slightly and that is when I discovered the plastic film. The glue on that section had not dried a bit. Not even on the piece of foam without the plastic.
Moral of the story. Remove the plastic. White glue will work fine.
Woodlandtoots
Is it best to leave or remove the plastic backing?
Thanks
If your lamminating very large areas of foam to foam using latex caulk, try spreading the caulk with a notched trowel. The layer of adhesive will be more uniform and the notches allow for trapped air and some better initial suction/ hold. This dries or at least will hold overnight to continue work.
I find that ceramic tile adhesive works the best and dries the fastest with the strongest bond of anything used yet. Spread thin w/ the notched trowel dries overnight. I use the mastic for foam to foam, foam to wood, plaster castings to either foam or wood and even plaster to plaster. I just finished a 12 ft long rock cut The area is just too large for individual castings and acheiving the uniform cut appearance. I decided to use the rubber rocks from Cripplebush Models http://www.cripplebush.net/ . The large rubber rock panels were installed using the tile adhesive to allach to the plywood sub facing. The edges of the molds were bonded with hot glue. The tile mastice dried in 48hr and some spots were over 1/4" thick of applied glue. The adhesive is water cleanup so any mess or ooze is readily cleaned w/o damage to the surroundings.
The plastic film needs to be removed!!! If it isn’t removed, there will be problems gluing foam to foam, gluing roadbed to foam…gluing groundcover to foam…remove the plastic film!
Don Z.