Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Sorry if this has been talked about before. I tried the search function 10 different ways and didn't find an answer. What glue works to glue the foam to itself?

I've been research all day and I can find 1" board locally I was thinking of gluing two together to come up with 2 inches. Most materials never fail at a glue joint if bonded correctly and you could stagger joints on profiles longer than 8 feet.

Thanks in advance

Carpet pad adhesive?

I've used gorilla foam glue with great success. You need to know exactly what type of foam you have though. Foam like used in bedding would use a completely different type of adhesive then rigid foam, like insulation, or semi rigid foam, like in a bed roll.

If it's the kind of foam you would use for mattress you need to use a spray on contact adhesive, such as upholstery adhesive. If it's the rigid foam insulation, they make foam adhesive. It comes in the cartridges just like Liquid Nails or PL Premium.

10-4 What I am contemplating is a 100% lamination of two layers of 1 inch XPS to 2 inch thickness. This would mean I'd have to cover one surface completely with glue.

From experience, there are three adhesives that work really well. Gorilla Glue, epoxy and Hot Wire Foam Factory's Foam Fusion ( I think it's hwff.com) Not sure if you need 100% coverage to make GG or Foam Fusion stick well. I did. Epoxy is probably the hardest to work with.

Gorilla Glue (GG) works stellar for gluing XPS edge to edge, and would probably work for smaller sections flat to flat (haven't tried that personally). However, if left to it's own devices it expands 4x it's volume, so you would need to be prepared to add quite a bit of weight spread out very evenly (...or vacuum bag...or fill a water bed mattress on top? ), so I would be concerned about being able to get a uniform thickness without uncontrolled expansion.

I have had really good success gluing wood paneling to foam (flat to flat, of course) using 3M's Fastbond Green 30NF water based contact adhesive. Good product, goes on easy, cleans up easy, no mixing (doesn’t even say to stir or shake it), and seems to bond very well. It is sprayable, but the instructions say that rolling is preferred to get the high buildup recommended. You need to wait until it is completely dry, and with the roller technique on foam this can be much longer than the 1/2 hr listed on the can (upto an hour in high heat and humidity). It needs to be applied to both surfaces and make sure you use stickers (thin slats of wood or dowels) to separate the two pieces while getting things aligned, because once any significant areas come in contact, they are not going to come apart without destruction. (Thanks go out to Linuxmann for the lead on this product; he has had great success using the spray on method.) I do not see why this would not work equally well on foam to foam; it is specified to work on a number of different materials.

Thanks guys. Yeah, here in Tucson, I'm getting really odd looks or comments when I ask about the 2 inch material. One supplier who sells to contractors said he could order it after a long computer search on his end but he chuckled when I said I only needed 6.

I found a HD that has plenty of the one inch and like I said laminating with a staggering of the joints might even be a better end product anyway, as long as the glue joint is good.

So the 3M stuff sounds like contact cement. I'll have to look at the label to verify, but it sounds like the stuff to use. I had wondered about the expansion of the Gorilla glue. I can definately weigh it down but if there's a better alternative why not use that?

Thanks again

The secret of using Gorilla Glue for laminating parts together is .... you have to spread the glue out VERY THIN, as with a plastic auto body squeegee...and Not spray it with water... There is usually enough moisture in the air to allow it to cure , and it won't expand near as much ... You can't just roll it on , it has to be spread thinly or it will distort and foam out the edges .. we used this many times for laminating foam wings .. best thing , spread very thinly , the Glues goes very far in coverage ... although it does dry and cure a little more slowly and IMHO makes a stronger join that a highly foamed one ... and you don't have to weight it as much ...

In Tucson , if it's really DRY , a light spray of water would be OK...just damp , not soaked...

I inquired via email to the GG folks about face gluing aluminum sheets to foam and their recommendation ( I assume their recommendation would be same for foam to foam faces) is to spray lightly with water and spread out the glue in a paper thin layer. I tried a small sample and I never could pry the aluminum and foam apart!!!

atahoekid wrote:I inquired via email to the GG folks about face gluing aluminum sheets to foam and their recommendation ( I assume their recommendation would be same for foam to foam faces) is to spray lightly with water and spread out the glue in a paper thin layer. I tried a small sample and I never could pry the aluminum and foam apart!!!

If you can do a lager sample - say 1'6" square and leave it out in the sun for a few days to see what thermal expansion will do and you'll have a better judge of what bonds aluminum to foam.

I can personally vouch for gluing foam to aluminum with 3M Fastbond 30NF. It holds in high temperatures, I chose it because the inside skin of my root beer brown trailer reaches 140F on a warm day here in No. Calif.

I also chose it because it is water based, so there's no noxious fumes in the cabin of the trailer, and it was relatively easy to clean up. It's a contact cement, but you can brush or roller it on if you don't want to spray. If you get the Fastbond 30 Green, it changes color when it's ready to bond.

The downside is that it's relatively expensive, I paid ~$50 for a quart through Amazon.com. That was the only place I could find a small quantity.

I would recommend it for most foam-to-something applications.

<Chas>

Look at these Stickies:

Web Sites w/ Foam Info For Tools, Techniques, Sources Etc..
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=44382

glue info for foamies
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=44078

adhesion level of myriad samples
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=44801

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo