but i was driving by a construction site where the crew was applying fake stucco to the store fronts. They had very large pre-cut shapes made out of what looks like the same stuff cheap 7-11 coolers (styrofoam?) are made of and these are what got covered with the stucco. I asked the foreman if there was a trash pile I could rummage through and came home with 8 pieces 8’x6"x14". Is this EPS or other material that could be used in board construction or am I just taking up garage space for no reason? Any help appreciated.
architectural details hotwired out of blocks of foam, covered w/ stucco wire and stucco. A lot of crown molding is made this way for buildings.
My friend has business doing just that and surfboard blanks. A lot more money in the building details.
Thanks for the response. I’m pretty sure that there will be screw-ups a-plenty with my first attempts at board construction…thats why I loaded up on the stuff. Right now I’m experimenting with different glues on sample pieces to see what works and what eats holes.
I’ve had success with “gorilla glue”/urethane glue, or 3M super 77,(it does eat at the foam, but if you put a lite coat on both surfaces it works well…
Score! Perfect blank materials.
I second the Gorilla Glue. Or the Elmer’s version of foaming poluyurethane glue with the blue bull on the label - its cheaper & comes in bigger containers.
Squeegee a light coat on one piece and mist the other one with water from a household sprayer. Clamp with blue tape & weight on top. It bonds so strong you don’t need stringers.
(If you want stringers, use the same glue.)
Be sure to wear rubber gloves when working with that foaming polyurethane stuff, it will not come off your skin…I have that stuff on my hands of over a week now and nothing will take it off,not even salt water. :+)
A big thanks to all for your valued suggestions. After last nights glue ups I waited 24 hrs. to continue my investigations. While difficult to pry apart the test samples did separate and wet glue was observed in the nooks and crannies of the foam. Both glues were H2O soluble. I’m going to run with some of your other recommendations on glue types tonight! I do want to install a stringer (cedar) so this will also factor in bonding experiments. Thanks again. What a cool site…
One thing I have found about the foaming, water-catalysed polyurethane glues is that unless you do everything right every time, the stuff hardens in the bottle. That is, squeeze the bottle until a wee droplet is sticking up the nozzle/tip, all air out, then cap it. Ambient humidity in the air will set it off.
I have gone to just getting the small, ~2 oz bottles, just so I don’t have big lumps of the stuff to get rid of. Yes, the unit price is higher, but if you use 2 oz of an 8 oz bottle and the rest turns to a solid, the savings really ain’t there, y’know?
On the other hand, it has some real possibilities as a ding-filler, especially on older boards where the yellow foam it makes will blend in nicely or under airbrush/opaque repairs. Playing with it now, will report when I have some hard facts. At $4 US for one of those small bottles, well, that’s an acceptable cost per ding repair or three.
hope that’s of use…
doc…