On an early episode of Working on the Railroad, on DIY network, they were gluing down the foam board with contact cement. http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hb_collections/article/0,2033,DIY_13874_4174387,00.html
I had tried regular contact cement, which turned my blue foam green and melted it, I discovered I needed a latex based glue. When I went up to my friendly local hardware store (a.k.a Home Depot), they didn’t have any that didn’t have acetone, and the manager didn’t know of any spray on adhesives that wouldn’t melt foam. Who makes the glue they were using on that episode of Working on the Railroad, or what other types of glue can I use to glue some felt to my foam?
I’ve never used a contact cement on foam nor have I glued any felt. But I have glued a lot of cork roadbed to foam using regular Elmers white glue. Why not try spreading a thin layer of that and gluing down your felt?
Regards
Ed
There is a latex adhesive you can get.
I’ve found it at both Walmart & Home Depot here in Canada.
It will say on the tube that it is safe for use with foam.
Gordon
the best thing for gluing foam to foam is latex liquid nails. it won’t melt the foam and has no foul odors.it’s also good for gluing cork to foam and track to the cork. one thing when gluing foam to foam. the glue needs air to cure so it may take several days for it to dry completely. you will have to fasten the layers of foam together so they can’t move around until the glue dries from the outside edge to the middle. some craft stores have push pins in different lengths to secure the layers together.
Also, Ohio Sealants PL 300 and PL 200 are apparently safe. Randy Rinker will urge you to use latex caulk because it can be pried up more easily, especially the non-working switches. Put a zig-zag of string along where you want the track to lie, use a blade paint-scraper to spread it near paper-thin, and press your roadbed into place, pin it to keep it in place until the caulk sets, and remove the pins. Same for the track.
Actually, no, it’s not. Liquid Nails is good for gluing foam to wood, concrete, or drywall, but it specifically says right on the label, “not recommended for foam to foam bonds.” LN barely grips foam to foam, and it’s a pretty bad overally adhesive in general. Remember, it’s a construction adhesive, designed to glue stuff up that will later be covered with a finishing coat. It’s most common use is in gluing foam between studs, which will later be covered with drywall.
I’ve been building foam-based layouts for over nine years, and have experimented with just about every common adhesive out there. Many work, some work well, and some should be passed over like the plague. Here’s my take on adhesives for foam.
White glue: good overall, available in bulk, and inexpensive. Not the best for FtoF bonds, as it’s a bit brittle. I use it (thinned) for all scenery applications.
Wood glue. good overall, avaliable in bulk, and inexpensive. It holds FtoF better than white glue. I don’t recommend it for laying track, as it does NOT want to give up! One benefit over most other adhesives is that it’s sandable, meaning that you can relatively easily work right through it when carving through multiple layers of foam.
Silicone caulk: Inexpensive, readily available, and it HOLDS. It’s the best thing I’ve found to glue foam to wood. But…it stinks to high heaven and will NOT give up it’s grip. I only use it to glue foam to wood and foam to foam.
Latex Caulk: inexpenssive, readily available, and works very well for laying track. A little goes a LONG way (a single tube will last me 100+ feet of flextrack). The major advantage of latex caulk is that it hold well enough, but you’ll be able to pry up track later if need be. I use it to glue track down, and to add small contours to finish foam carving (especially compoun
I went up to my friendly local craft store, and in the floral department, I found a can of glue by 3M made specifically for foam. You spray it on and it works like contact cement. I also thought of trying Liquid Nails for foam board (which I used to glue the foam to the wood base), but didn’t like the way it spread.
I use the PL300 product and I’m happy with the F to F bonding, not having any troubles thus far!. OTOH, I’ve had some trouble with it’s use to bond cork and/or flextrack to foam or plastic. Seems that sometimes it holds very well and other times it doesn’t…I’m still trying to figure out why!
3M Super 77 Spray Glue
If you use it DO NOT spray it directly on the foam, the propellant will eat the foam, spray it on the other surface. We use it for everything, Laying foam, or gluing track, or anything else.
orsonroy:
Not all spray adhesives are the same. Some are “rubber” cements and are semi permanent, others like 3M’s Spray 77 are contact cements and are very permanent.
When building layouts for Dunham Studios (www.dunhamstudios.com, we used a latex contact cement to build up layers of 2" foam. We would roll it on, let it dry for about 20 minutes (or speed it up with a hairdryer), and then place the next layer. We usually cut and fit several layers/sections at once to save time. We would use long sheetrock screws or bamboo scewers to secure the layers together until the glue set.
We also used the latex contact cement to glue the cork roadbed to the foam and then used either the latex or 3M Spray 77 to glue the track to the cork.
Unfortunately, 3M S77 is what I mostly used, along with 3M 90 and whatever the Dow version is called. In other words, I tried it all, and nothing lasted very long in either an “average” layout environment (poor heating/cooling, bare walls, lots of humidity swings…a typical basement) or on portable layouts (I built two trial Ntrak layouts with spray mount. They lasted less than a year and three shows before they started falling apart).
I agree that conventional foam-safe rubber cement is great for foam, but it’s still mot the cheapest thing out there. Most modelers are on a budget, and aren’t always close to a store that carries foam safe cement. Those are two big reasons I advocate inexpensive & readily available alternatives like latex caulk and wood glue.
I use yellow carpenters glue. Cheap, spreadable, doesn’t smell weird, and cleans up with water.
Elmer’s makes a spreadable paste version of their carpenter’s glue. I like it because you don’t get the overspill like with liquid. Apply with a putty knife. Works great. And it’s cheap right now if you can find a store stocking the old style containers. Elmer’s is changing the packaging and the old style are on sale. I just got some for $1.99, regular $8.99 each at Home hardware (Canada).
On a similar thread recently someone suggested using ceramic tile adhesive to glue foam sheets together. The guy said he had great success with this technique.