Thread: Some Foam questions....

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Hello all,

Im brand new to the site and have been seeing some really great stuff and getting some good ideas. I've noticed some of you have a lot of experience with carving foam for tombstones and have a couple of questions maybe you could help me with...

I am planning on building a lot of decorations in the next few months leading up to my Halloween themed wedding this october 31st and i will end up using a lot of foam. I want to make some bigger pieces possibly and need to know a good way to glue sheets of foam together.

Is hot glue sufficient? or should i laminate sheets together with epoxy etc...

Once i have these pieces done, i planned on coating them with west system epoxy to add durability and strength. Does anyone have any experience doing something similar to this? and were there any major problems along the way? eg, epoxy melting the foam etc...

anyways i've gone on long enough....any feedback would be appreciated.

thankyou

I don't believe larger pieces will hold together with just hot glue. Small stuff it would work okay. Hot glue may also melt the foam slightly if you get one of the hot temp guns.

I've always used glue specifically made for foam (foam safe) - gorilla glue (longer cure time, but strong), liquid nails for foamboard/foamcore, etc...

As long as whatever epoxy you get is specifically formulated to work with foam, it shouldn't melt it.

Definitely be careful with the adhesives. Just like Frankie's Girl said, make sure your glues are listed as safe for foam. I had some glue lying around that I thought would be safe. When you applied it to the foam, it didn't seem to melt it right away. However, when I came back the next day to paint, the glue had dissolved away the foam at the joints and all my pieces fell apart. Liquid Nails for foam is your new best friend.

I always use Liquid Nails. I have a cemetery entrance (Pics in my folder) that were made with wood but I glued foam sheets on top of the wood pillars with liquid nails and it's held up great!

Welcome to the forum! I am pretty new here too and have met some incredibly talented people who are SOOOO eager to help you build!

I also was planning an October 31 wedding this year but we split up so the wedding's off. Good luck, It will be a beautifully haunting event, I'm sure!

I have used foam factories glue and I like it I have not used there coatings but I have heard good things here is link Hotwire*Foam*Factory*::...
however if it is not going to take large amount of abuse running a heat gun over the finished project and then exterior latex paint works great.

Hotwire foam factory is the way to go, their foam cutters are nice, too.

I used gorilla glue on my foam projects.... my alligator I glued foam together before carving... and the pirate ship I made .. parts of it was held together with gorilla glue.

One word on the gorilla glue.... It expands when it cures. So you need to have some pressure on your foam pieces while it dries. If you dont, the glue will still hold well but it pushed the pireces apart some and then you have air pockets. When you carve the foam you will find you have empty spaces sometimes at the joints. I just added some glue to fill the 'pockets' .

Liquid Nail is the best I have found so far. Then masking tape across the joint to hold it in place for about 24 hours. Keep in mind, the colder your workspace gets (I do mostly all my work in the garage in the Fall) the longer it will take to dry.

A lot has to do with the type of foam you are using. Different types of styrofoam react differently to adhesives.

If you are using a light, less dense foan -- such as the sheet pill styrofoam sold at home improvement stores, I recommend an all weather white glue. I have had great success with Titebond II. Stronger adhesives, such as Liquid Nails Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive will eat through softer foams.

If you are using the more dense foam (usually pink or blue) then liquid nails for foam is fantastic. It's a strong and reliable adhesive. But please, please get Liquid Nails for foam. The construction ahdesive can eat through the denser foam if too much is applied. It can also make the foam brittle.

If you're using the green crush foam usually associated with faux flower arrangements and the like, then use glue specifically made to soak into and adhere the pieces.