I am in the process of gluing my foam together and am becoming distressed. Through a suggestion, I used regular old elmers between the layers. While it has been only about 24 hours, the glue does not seem to be setting. Have I made a grievous error? Maybe it would be smart to put it outside- for more air circulation? But, it is only about 50degrees around here.
Hmm…
Pieri
Did you leave a little Elmers out to see if the stuff is whacked?
5 hours is a solid cure time for me with styrofoam.
Pour a dab of Elmers somewhere and see if it kicks.
Lately, I’ve been using a non set tacky glue, so it doesn’t have to set, and I can shape immediately (kiteboards)
LeeDD- you have a name for that non-set tacky glue? I’m looking for something like that (that won’t melt polystyrene foam).
LeeDD,
I did seperate pieces and they set. Of course the glue closer to the edge set much faster. Seems like it needs alot of air circulation to set. I just put it outside; a little breezy here today- hope this will help. I should say it is tacky, just not hard.
Fingers crossed…
Pieri
Hi
It’s in the shop right now.
Found it at Pastime Hardware, in a brown squeeze bottom, also availible in gallon buckets. It seems to NOT eat stryro, gets a touch gummy while shaping rails, but is no problem because the dust carries off the particles of glue, straight down to the floor.
I’ll look when I get to the shop, which might not be for a while, as I have recently stopped kiteboarding to get back into windsurfing.
50¼ is a bit cold for Elmers. Also Elmers doesn’t work real well on urethane. Works fine for all the polystyrene I’ve used though. If this is a urethane blank, I’d suggest epoxy or a contact glue like 3M 90 which you can get at Home Depot.
Damon - It should work. but it does take some time for elmers type glue to set. I glued up 2 XPS foam sheets last year for a board. Left the sheets clamped up for 3 days and it worked. But @ 24 hours I was wondering the same thing as you. I think Elmers needs more air getting to it to dry quickly.
Either rip them apart and start over with epoxy, or be patient.
Best,
Eric J
Hi HKS
Name is Adeel’s, and I’ve made one kiteboard that has held together fine after 11 days of usage, gluing 3, 1/4" sheets of white styrofoam together, shaping and glassing as normal.
Thank you again everyone.
Mind at ease…
Pieri
You CAN’T glue-up polyurethane or the extruded EPS with white or yellow glue, Why? because the glue dries on the surface edge and seals the still wet glue in as if it were still in the bottle. The foam in non-asorbitive, so the glue sits between the surfaces for all of eternity. Resin for polyurethane or polyurethane “gorilla” types of glue are excellent for any and all applications, a little bit goes a long way.
Good to see you at Swaylocks again Jim.
I used elmers on my EPS and let it sit for almost a week,perfect cure, shaped fine. But I am in hot Fla…
Actually my xps/elmers glue up was in the heat of summer too. Maybe that - and the fact that it was not clamped perfectly - was just enough to get the stuff inside mostly dry.
I admit to finding a few wet spots along the nose rail when I cut the outline out. but that was it. everywhere else seemed to dry fine - it certainly dried enough to hold the rocker I bent into the blank.
All that said - the next time I do that to make a blank - I plan to use epoxy.
Eric J
Greg and Jim you are right. White glue is balls on polyurethane- just around the edges like you said, Jim. I am so F!#$%&ing mad right now. Oh well >:(
Back to the beginning…
Damon
It took 7 days for me with Elmer’s Glue. I like the polyurethane glue the best because it flexes. I’m sure that epoxy would work good too.
Well Damon, how do you think I found out it doesn’t work, trial and error, I thought I was onto something, controlled set-up, ease of application, it just doesn’t dry, that’s all!