Thread: polystyrene what should I use to stick?

ummm....does polystyrene glue glue polystyrene?

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

ummm....does polystyrene glue glue polystyrene?

Yes but not polystyrene foam which will dissolve.

Try contact cement (impact adhesive in UK-speak)

I used to use that to glue veneer onto polystyrene foam cores to make model aircraft wings.

Don't be too heavy handed with the contact cement as it might dissolve the foam. Try it on scrap.

Originally Posted by dullbird

Hi Guys and gals

I'm playing with a little project...

I'm making a target (for a dart gun not bullets) and it si in shape of a goat.

but rather than just having a peice of wood with some suitable material to catch the darts in the correct areas I have decided to see if I can get it a little more 3D

I have heaps of polystyrene here left over from packaging and stuff and I'm thinking of putting this on my goat cut out and shapping it to look a little bit more like a body and legs and stuff...

my question is because I have various pieces, what would be the best thing to stick the polystyrene to the wood and of course pieces of polystyrene to each other to build areas up ready to shape???

I know that polystyrene is not the most durable of materials if your going to shoot at it as it can fall apart easily however I do know you can coat it in a watery mixture of cement as people in aquariums do this for fake backgrounds etc.. was thinking of doing this just for a bit of durability before covering in material...


to those thinking of replying this is just a bit of project fun to see if I can pull it off and I only have 50bux to do it so no stupid suggestions of what I should be using including ballistics gel and real goats

the plan

1. draw goat shape - done
2. cut out
3. cover in polystyrene and then cut and file in to shapes to imitate body shape as best as possible
4. cover in something for durability
5. make areas where darts a re likely to hit out of appropriate material (thinking of those rubbery matts that people put down in boats and stuff that fix together like a jigsaw puzzle)
6. cover in material
7. attach something to back to allow it to stand on its own fairly stable
8. paint areas if needed

Bugger, pre-empted again. ............................as for the glue, PVC wood/craft glue, it's cheaper than coke.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Bugger, pre-empted again. ............................as for the glue, PVC wood/craft glue, it's cheaper than coke.

Agreed, wood glue is also good (PVA, though ). It takes a bit longer to dry. I had original written that but got side-tracked and accidentally deleted the post before submitting it.

My next door neighbour (from my flying days) used to make a lot of foam signs and displays in his job in marketing for Sanyo and he used PVA almost exclusively (except when he made model plane wings 'cos the Aquadhere made the wood veneer swell and the veneer sheeting would split when it dried out).

spray adhesives, some hair sprays, hot glue, sellys no more nails, pretty much any sealasitc, clag glue.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

spray adhesives, some hair sprays, hot glue, sellys no more nails, pretty much any sealasitc, clag glue.

At $12 a 415g tube Dave! I had to get one today. $12 would buy about 5 litres of the white stuff.

not sticking, but how dispose of bulky left over styrene which takes a up a lot of space and is hard to get rid of.
What I do is put a bit of turps or petrol into a bucket, rip the styrene up and let it dissolve in the bucket, (I have managed to convert cubic meters of this annoying left over stuff) and the next day I peel the left over mass of styrene and bin it. The solvent fumes would have evaporated.

I used to have a special 3M glue for it, but can't recall what it was.
Sorry Lou

As has been mentioned, anything with a hydrocarbon solvent in it will melt the stuff quicker than, well, anything.