What do the 'team' suggest as a good glue for expanded polystyrene sheet to stick to itself? I am making up some temporary formwork for an epoxy fibreglass moulding and intend to make the structure from expanded polystyrene. When it was popular to stick patterned polystyrene to ceilings there was a special paste for it, but now it's been banned as a fire risk I cannot find any.
AWEM
PVA would probably do the job.
Regards, Tony
How about Copydex? It is often used to stick veneer to EP for use in model aircraft wings.
Archie
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....arg .... major snag ! The resin disolves polystyrene it seems !!!!! Could use a barrier layer but I suspect it's going to be plywood
AWEM
Polyurethane glue works well. Light, strong and flexible:
Gorilla Glue, Probond, etc
-- willhane
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I don't think so Andrew. Polyester resin dissolves polystyrene but epoxy doesn't. Neither does Copydex.
Henry
I seem to remember that Copydex can be thinned with water and no it doesn't disolve foam. I know a guy who used it to glue the veneer to his foam wings.
Probably the best and easiest stuff to use is something called Gudy. It is a thin film adhesive which once set, is stronger than the foam and can be hot wire cut and sanded through the glue line with ease. This can be a problem with the usual glues. Gudy will be too expensive if there is not much foam to stick will repay itself in ease of use if there is a lot to do. This article is old 1988 but the stuff seems to be still available from Neschen.
Archie
thinned pva will work as a barrier between the and just about anything your likely to put on it and it's cheap.
Has anyone else tried the polyurethane
-- willhane
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I've been sticking thin sheets of polystyrene on the shed roof to cure the condensation - best results I've had have been with using carpet tile adhesive. It's icky, grippy and sticky - you'll need gloves.
Regards,
Pop down to the local graphics supplies shop and get a can of 3M spray mount, that should do the trick.
Peter
......is that that Icarus fella? --
Chris Edwards (in deepest Dorset) "....there *must* be an easier way!"
No, he had feathers. Don't fancy sticking all these feathers on with Copydex :-)
Archie
PVA/acrylic, epoxy, some polyurethanes (eg gorilla glue, PU foams), some spray adhesives (eg 3M type 77 or 78 and others). Or search ebay for [polystyrene glue] if you only want a little.
Glues are now subject to some EU regulation or other which means that the volatile organic solvents are being either minimised or done away with altogether. It's (some of) these solvents which damage PS when it is glued.
I'm not up-to-date on this, but many glues have changed in the last few years, so basically try anything you have handy on a piece of scrap, it might work and save the cost and effort of buying something especially for the job.
I use Wilko floor varnish ...
If polystyrene glue is the same as polystyrene cement, that's exactly what you *don't* want. It's designed to work on solid polystrene (plastic models) and works by dissolving the plastic. It just 'melts' straight through expanded polystyrene.
Tim
You can get a specialised cyano glue for sticking polystyren
foam,usually the odourless variety of cyano.
5 minute epoxy will also stick it together.Alla
-- Allan Waterfal
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Should have added "foam", as in [polystyrene foam glue]. eg
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