I’m working in ho. I have purchased Daps contact cement as it says it is good for foam. I’m concerned that the contact cement might cause problems with the hot tools. as I could only find half inch board I have to laminate several layers. Has anyone tried this. Please inlighten me if you have. I have went threw all threads regaurding foam and did not see anything on this subject Thankyou
Standard adhesive caulk should also work fine. Over time you should fine that hot tools aren’t necessary. A large steak knife or even saws all or jig saw will do most of the work as good or better.
If that DAP brand cement is ‘foam safe’ - You shoul be be good to go. We were able to get 1" & 2" pink foam here in Minnesota and we used PL300 to glue out layers together. Cutting it with anything from a kitched steak knife to a small saw to a hot wire foam cutter works fine. I would just run a ‘bead’ of the glue every 16" or so. There is no need to smear the entire sheet with the product!
Jim
I have caulked and glued layers of foam together and used my soldering iron to give it a rock face appearance. The glue and caulk do not melt like the foam but I just peel it away where it may become exposed during shaping. It is much lighter than plaster scenery and just as realistic in my estimation.
Hamitnblue
Thankyou for your time. As I will be building this in my bedroom.(we have a large bedroom) I’m going to have to keep the mess down to a min. I have no exp. with this mat. I was hopeing that the hot tools would help do this.
Jim
After working with wood ,Iwas thinking about covering the intire board, but your right Small strips will do. Thanks for wakeing me up.
Read ALL the instructions on that DAP contact cement very carefully – I had some that said safe for foam but then in very small print said, NOT FOR STYROFOAM.
I made the mistake of applying some before I saw that warning and wound up with a large hole in the foam.
Latex caulk is much safer and easier to use.
When bonding/ laminating larger sections of foam, you may do as Jim suggested as not having to cover the entire surface. I find that these large surface bonds will require longer drying period as the caulk, adhesive etc will not have the “air” to dry as closer to edges. Once pulled apart some foam that was bonded w/ Dap caulk and after almost 2 weeks there were places still not completely dry. I have found that spreading the caulk or whatever adhesive using a fine notched trowel to have better initial tack and the trapped air within the bond will help in quicker drying. This can be a tile trowel or the smaller “putty knife” version I must note that even though many other adhesive caulks work well, I perfer using ceramic tile cement. Tile mastic will dry quite firm overnight and pretty much is impervious to water. It also is a great adhesive for placing castings and/or plaster bits that need to be fixed within scenery. Any oozing that may show can be cut away or even carved/ shaped before paint or washes. This mastic is formulated to hold ceramic tiles in a shower and last upwards of 20+ years, it will shurely work for our purposes.