I wanna glue blue foam board to paper but I don’t know what adhesive to use. Everything I have on hand (Goo, CA, Scenic Adhesives, Plastic Adhesives, Wood Glue, White Glue, etc.) is either ineffective or eats the foam. Please share your collective wisdom.
My layout is blue foam board glued down to plywood with Elmer’s wood glue with news paper glued down on top of that with a mixture of 50% water and 50% wood glue covered with plaster. I built it four and a half years ago and haven’t had any problems with it.
The trick is to paint a heavy coat of wood glue on your plywood with paint brush, put your foam board down and put heavy books on it to hold it down tight until it dries which will take three or four days at 80 degrees - at least it did on mine.
Good luck.
Tracklayer
i know some who use wallpaper paste to glue paper to painted wood so that could work on foam. i use latex liquid nails or grab-it for foam board to glue foam to wood and cork to foam and foam to foam. these are foam safe. glues have to cure by evaporation so if there is no air circulation as between foam boards it may never cure. i’ve taken foam boards apart after several months and the glue in the middle is still wet. when layering foam boards i use wooden barbeque skewers to pin them together
What kind of paper? Are you putting up something like a pre-printed background scene on a vertical sheet of foam? Or is this more like scenery-building with old newspaper and plaster?
White glue will hold stuff to foam board, but it may take some time to dry completely. The same goes for latex caulk. However, if you care about what’s printed on the face of the paper, like a background scene, then you need something that won’t seep through. You might try some sort of spray adhesive, but test it first to see that it won’t eat the foam.
OK, here’s the whole story. I drew plans for a 2-track timber tunnel portal on graph paper. After cutting out the profile of the portal, I pinned it to blue foam board and, using the paper as a template, cut the foam to the identical shape. Then I scratch-built the portal by gluing the wood right over the graph paper. Result: paper-backed wood that I now need to glue to the foam. That’s why I need to find an adhesive that will attach paper to foam.
Thanks to you all.
When you say “blue foam board,” are you referring to the stuff used for building insulation, either 1 or 2 inches thick, that you get at Home Depot or Lowes, or the quarter-inch thick “presentation board” from Staples or an art supply place?
Either way, I think white glue should do the job for you. Lay the board down horizontally, spread on the glue and place the portal over it. Put a book or something similar on top to add weight, and leave it overnight. You might want to put a paper towel under it to catch anything that squeezes out the sides when you press the pieces together.
Yes, the building insulation stuff. [:)]
I would use 3M77 works great
JIM
I use printed paper templates when I lay out my turnouts. I use diluted white glue to hold them in place. I just brush it on to the foam and lay the template in place. A plastic squeegee removes any air bubbles.
Another option is to lightly sand the paper off with coarse paper and then caulk it on.
Water based contact cement. I believe the 3M product mentioned earlier is such a beast. You can find it at any office supply store.