hey guys i bought four sheets of eps foam sheltersheath insulation in 4’x8’x.75" sheets. i took off the pastic clear and reflective covering and was going to glue the four sheets together with elmers glue. but, i decided not to use whole elmers glue because i figured it would dry before i could get the sheets down. so i watered it down and then sprayed it onto the foam and glued the four together last night. but, this afternoon when i went to cut the 4’ wide sheets in half to have two blanks i found that they were barely sticking together. the Project frog thread said that he used elmers glue (probably whole) so now i am wondering if i should use a paint roller and roll the elmers on or could i use spray adhesive and glue them together? would spray adhesive work? if it would work, what brand is the strongest and would anyone reccomend? thanks, novasurfer
Just glue it! Use a paint roller. Sounds like and expensive blank? Why not just buy one?
Opposite of what SurfDing says… I think you probably spent very little for the foam… $30? So wasting the white glue will be OK.
I’ve been using PU foaming glue (like Gorilla Glue). It sets up in abut three hours and is a bit denser than the 1# EPS that you bought so it helps to maintain the rocker that you’ll set into it while gluing the foam pieces together. I usually only use two pieces of foam though… so if I want a 3" thick board I"ll buy a 4’ x 8’ x 1 1/2", cut it in half length wise and that gives me a board that is 8’ x 20 to 24" wide and 3" thick.
I usually will glue up the pieces with the final rocker to be at the center glue line at each end. That way I don’t have the denser PU glue showing through on the deck or bottom.
If you want a longer board just use a scarf joint. I tried a butt joint the first time and the denser PU glue left a bump, but I also vac bag balsa onto the light weight foam.
Les
3M Spray Adhesive is the only way to go. You don’t have to wait for any glue to dry, you can start shaping immediately. Just don’t put too much down, because it will melt EPS. Just hold the can a fair distance from the foam and that way most of the solvent evaporates before it gets to the foam.
surfding: it only cost me $40 for 4 sheets of 4’x8’x.75" sheets which is enough to make two blanks so i comes out to about $20 for one blank. and i didnt feel like waiting for a blank to get shipped in plus i wanted to make my first board from scratch
tridrles: thanks for all the info. i thought about using gorilla glue but after i heard that it foams i decided against it. thanks for the help
kenz: thanks for the feedback. i decided just to go with 3m adhesive spray because i found one that is specifically designed for adhereing styrophoam.
Do you have access to a camera? If so get some pictures taken and posted. Shame you’ve alrady gone for eps, you could have had a look for the Kingspan or Celutex polyurethane insulation sheets and glassed that with poly resin…dead cheap. Still, I suppose I’m going to have to do that experiment myself.
How are you getting the rocker into your blank, are you using a rocker table or similar? or are you just making a sheet thick enough to shape the rocker into?
Really interested in your progress, keep us informed as you go.
i thought about glueing the boards together and then putting them on a sheet of plywood that was bent to the rocker i wanted and then adding weights on top of it to form the rocker curve… the boards put together are 3" thick and i was planning on making a longboard and a retro fish out of them so i dont really need that much of a rocker… do you think that 3" is enough that i dont need to even form a rocker i can just shape the rocker when i’m shaping?
Personally, I’ve never done this, in fact I’ve only ever done hollow wooden boards. I do think you would be better laminating some rocker into the sheets by the way you mentioned. Have you got some dimensions in mind for the project? This will determine whether you have enough material to shape enough rocker in.
Besides if you have bought 4 8x4 sheets of 7.5 mm (1 1/2"), laminating the rocker into them (with a rocker table of sorts) means you would be able to get 4 blanks out, as you’d only need to lam 2 sheets together at a time and get 2 blanks out of each set. Have you thought about glassing yet, what you will use for resin or cloth? There maybe some alternatives to epoxy or glass cloth you might want to try if these are just experimental or shoestring budget boards. I remember a post by Roy Stewart some years back about using cotton fabrics as cloth instead of glass, and there must be some alternatives to epoxy that will work with EPS.
GET THE CAMERA OUT!!!
oh yeah i have pictures bro but i dont know how to get them on here… whenever i try uploading them it says they are too big… how do i get them smaller?
Yes, post pictures, but try doing it a different way. Try using imageshack, photobucket, or Flikr (online photo hosting sites). You basically post pictures by opening a picture in your browser on the site of your choice, right click (if on mac, option click, I think), and select “copy image location.” Then paste the address with the tags before and after as shown below (as a picture with bad text font, sorry):
By tags, I mean the part with the open bracket, IMG, close bracket, and then the part that is open bracket, /, IMG, close bracket.
I agree PICTURES are your friend. If your planing on having no more than 3" of rocker I imagine you might be able to get by with out bending some more rocker in, but myself, who build blanks like your doing, I always bend in 2-3 1/2 inches of extra rocker. It gives me more to play with, and I would recommend you do the same. Then if you screw up you can fix it.
alright guys i made a new thread for my project… heres the link