Comments on: Help me work with green high density foam

Question: Help me work with green high density foam

dirtdirt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:15:08 -0800

I am at the "what have I gotten myself into THIS year?" portion of the costume making season and am struggling with my material choice - 1 inch thick green high density foam.

This is the stuff you get at Joann (etc etc etc - this stuff). It cuts beautifully, and I've been using hot glue to glue it together, but that makes for ugly seams. I could, I think, use a different glue for it, but there's no good way to clamp the pieces while the glue sets.

I don't think my sewing machine has enough spunk to sew it together, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try.

Any advice would be appreciated, whether that is a method of construction that I haven't thought of, or a method of finishing to make the seams a bit less ugly. Caulk?

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:18:12 -0800

What are you doing to the exterior once it's assembled? If you're painting it, maybe you could glue the seams, cover them over with tape, and then paint over everything to blend and conceal.

By: PuppetMcSockerson

PuppetMcSockerson — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:19:23 -0800

I think I saw on mythbusters that they used some sort of spray glue/adhesive and that it worked beautifully.

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:21:19 -0800

Oh! I should have mentioned: I am painting the exterior when I am done. I have thought about, but am going to avoid, covering it with sewn fabric.

By: Nimmie Amee

Nimmie Amee — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:22:14 -0800

Seconding spray adhesive, it's the best one I found for working with such things.

By: phunniemee

phunniemee — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:06:34 -0800

Yup, spray adhesive. Sandwich between pieces of plywood (or a hard surface and plywood) and put a bunch of books on top.

By: jon1270

jon1270 — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:08:36 -0800

If you're dealing will small pieces, just use tape instead of clamps.

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:17:26 -0800

Alas, I threadsit: the work I am doing is edge to edge construction along non-regular lines. Seams. If it was fabric it would be sewn together. There is no good way to immobilize for anything like the amount of time it would take for it to cure. A spray contact cement might work (77?) , but the overspray issues seem pretty insurmountable. Hm.

By: peachfuzz

peachfuzz — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:23:39 -0800

How much joinery is there? Would it be manageable to sew with a big upholstery needle, some yarn, and a chunky hand-sewn baseball stitch or other butt join seam?

By: tinymegalo

tinymegalo — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:26:21 -0800

When you say that the seams from hot glue are ugly--is it because the glue doesn't go all the way to the edges of the foam? I've found that hot glue-ing gets alot neater if you use a Popsicle stick to spread it around quickly. If you decide to use this method, make sure you use an old-school glue gun that gets really hot, and not one of those new-fangled "cool temperature" ones.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:42:58 -0800

Tape might be your best bet.

Get some decent double sided tape and use that for your initial edge-to-edge join. Then put some 2" tape down over the seams. Given that you are cutting, your edges may not be flush anyways. I'd suggest the upholstery needle/baseball stitch as well. You can then tape over the stitching.

Or you can do as the cosplayers do and use stuff like wonderflex or fosshape to make your costume.

By: jferg

jferg — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:01:06 -0800

If it were me, I'd find some small, flat, plastic pieces, a couple inches in diameter. Maybe cut them out of some milk jugs or something. Then cut some evenly-spaced slits in the middle of each edge, fill them with am appropriate adhesive, and slide a disc halfway in, and repeat for the other half of the joint. Basically a biscuit joint, made of foam and plastic.

By: Flamingo

Flamingo — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:28:54 -0800

I'm not sure I have a great mental picture of what you're creating, but I think an upholstery needle and thread (like this) might work. After sewing the pieces together, I'd glue down a strip of muslin to cover the seam and then paint over the whole bit.

By: orme

orme — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 08:59:14 -0800

I also think tape is a good idea. I recently bought some Gorilla Tape and was surprised by the strength of the adhesive.