"What kind of glue for styrofoam?" Topic

I'm wondering what kind of glue works best for gluing styrofoam to styrofoam?

I've had the best luck by far with a hot glue gun.

Jason

If after sticking the pieces together you're going to want to shape the whole thing with a hot wire cutter or hot knife, then use low temp hot glue, because the wire cutter should melt that as well as the styrofoam.

If that's not an issue, high temp hot glue should work as well though you should test it to make sure the temperature won't melt your brand of styrofoam.

The building industry uses construction adhesive (e.g., Liquid Nails etc.), and many terrain builders use that as well.

You'll run across a lot of modelers who use PVA glue (white household glue or yellow carpenter's glue or tacky craft store glue). This will work fine for small projects; the problem is it cures by evaporating moisture, and styrofoam (expanded or extruded polystyrene) is a moisture barrier, so when sticking together big flat pieces, it's possible for the glue around the edges to cure, making an airtight seal, while the glue in the middle stays wet for a long long time.

There's a product here in Japan that is specifically made for styrofoam and bluefoam. It's made by Konishi but I don't know if it is available outside Japan. I would say your best bet would be to contact or get to a craft store like Michael's if there is such a thing in your area, and ask them. They should be able to steer you to the right products.

I use spray adhesive to build up material for terrain making, shaping, hot-wire cutting:

link

For small detail work, constructing structures and whatnot, I usually use a foam safe superglue from Pacer Tech:

link

PVA and toothpicks, If it stays wet in the middle…how do you know that.

I've always used Liquid Nails, you don't need a lot and more often than not you can't break the pieces apart if you wanted to.

thistothat.com :-)

Grimm

Thanks guys!

tabletopwarrior: Try gluing two pieces of styrofoam together with PVA and then pull them apart a week later. Most of the glue will still be wet. I know I learned that for myself on one of my first projects. I've mostly used polyurethane glues on my projects (works well but you have to be careful about the expansion) but I may have to give hot glue a try.

Chris