Compsand Community

[Sparrow]

Hey guys and girls,

for those interested in using contact adhesive to build out rails like Paul Jensen does, I've found Selleys 'Kwik Grip Advanced' to be a good product (so far). It is water based, low VOC, is white when you apply it and dries clear before you stick the two pieces together. Kicks butt over the original Kwik Grip, that stuff sucks.

I've been trying to laminate some rail pieces using alternating cork and balsa and the cork wasn't quite cut straight so i needed a way to glue it with a straight edge, the contact adhesive worked great as the cork is flexible i could manipulate it into a straight line which i probably couldn't have done if i had laminated the pieces together using epoxy and clamps.

If i have any problems I'll let ya know.

[tomway]

Hey Sparrow

How did you go with the contact adhesive?
It seems like it would be pretty handy wrt glue up times...
Turning and finishing the rails not too gummy?

[poser516]

Man Sparrow,
You read my mind.
I just bought some contact adhesive to try out, and here is your post! Nice.
The container says it bonds wood, and foam, among other things.  DId you use it for your first wood rail piece to attach it to the foam?

I want to know how it worked bonding wood to foam.

Any info?

[Sparrow]

sorry guys,
I've been working on some other projects, I have several different boards in different styles all in different stages, so i have plenty to keep me busy.

In regards to use of the glue, I've only laminated some rail strips together over a former to achieve pre-bent rails, I haven't done any more.
One thing though, it really soaked into the strips, so i'd suggest applying it thickly, the strips did come apart in some places where i'm assuming the glue wasn't thick enough.

I haven't tried turning or finishing or tried bonding wood to foam with it yet either.

I can do a couple of tests for you?

[poser516]

a couple of tests would be awesome.

[poser516]

sparrow, did it work?

[tomway]

thanks sparrow, looking forward to seeing how this goes for you.

[Sparrow]

apologies for the late reply,

The shaping test piece of rail shaped fine with no gumming up of the glue, i first used a rasp, then rough sandpaper and then fine and it was all good. The glue lines were clear and you prob wouldn't notice it very much at all.
You just gotta make sure the bond between your layers is solid, my first attempts with this stuff soaked in to the timber too much(or i didn't use enough glue), so when i shaped the test bit, it came apart between the balsa and cork layers. Hopefully that was only due to the way i glued it and not the glue itself.

I also glued some polystyrene to the other bit, and it seemed fine. I'll pull the foam off the piece tonight to see if the bond rips the beads out, if it does then it should be strong enough.

In all honesty, I'd rather use epoxy for glueing, but because of my cork not being exactly straight I opted for the contact glue for a bit of an experiment.

[Sparrow]

I tried to pull the polystyrene from a balsa surface and also a cork surface and they both stuck just as well as one another with the beads tearing out of both bits of foam.
It seems the bond to foam is pretty good.