What is the best glue for bonding foam sheets together .The sheets I am speaking of are what you get from the craft stores, eva foam I think.
It comes in 1/8" thick sheets. I have no contact cement would wood glue work? or should I wait and get the cement?
I was hoping to do my glue up tonight and didn't want to have to run to the store.

Thanks, Judd S.

Wood glues, etc won't work as they have to penetrate and the foam is closed cell. Contact cement is the best thing that I have found (I didn't find it LOL learned it here and there was an article on foam in a previous Rodmaker) Rod Bond, Ultimate Gel will work also in very THIN coats

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Judd,
Go to RCGroups and search there for the best stuff to use. There's a ton of info there. All types of foam are being used in the model industry today.
Dave

I have used Rod Bond (put it on and scrape as much off as I can) with good luck for a few years now. There's others that work well, also.

Putter
Williston, ND

I awctually glued up an entire grip from the craft store foam once.

Cut it into squares, contact cemented it all together.

Turned it into a pretty grip.

Couldn't actually fish with it though. Something about the way it deals with moisture. My hand got all white and puffy, pealed like it had been immersed in ice water for a day.

Cut the grip of fthe rod and replaced it with a cork grip.

Good Luck!

Buddy

Weldwood contact cement (red can or the bottle).

Get the contact cement. It's the best thing for this application.

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For the occasional user, how do you keep contact cement from getting so thick that it's hard to work with? I've had lots of problems with this and kinda gave up on the stuff; is there a thinner to add when it gets like that?

Putter
Williston, ND

There is a thinner and it works well. Better hardware stores carry it.

Buy the stuff in the plastic bottles - there's less in it and it's easier to get the lid off. Also, if it does go bad over time you won't have wasted as much.

................

I just use the 1/4" Flex Coat brushes and brush a thin coat on each surface. I did two split grip handles for the granddaughter's rods in one evening. That included 5 glue joints on each handle. I coated all the pieces, waited 20 minutes, stuck it all together and turned them the same evening. I used gray EVA and craft foam trim colors from Ben Franklin.

I had to buy a small can for under $5 since I couldn't find the bottled stuff.

I'll check for the thinner and if I can find that, I'll get some more Weldwood. Thanks.

Putter
Williston, ND

Thanks for all the replies I will pickup some cement today.
Judd S.

Just buy a new batch of CC when it gets thick. Once it thickens, you may run into problems down teh road with seams splitting. THE CC works MUCH BETTER when you use a nice fresh can. A Pint is $5 and lasts abotu a year if you use it a few times. If you keep the can closed and rarely use it, it should last longer then that.

Buddy - I have no idea what you are talking about - did your hands get infected from the grip? Or did the glue get all white and puffy and you grip peeled apart. Which Contact Cement did you use? The ONLY one I woudl use and do use fairly frequently is the Red can of WEldwood, NOT the Green. I never tried the otehr rubber cements & contact cements becasu eteh WEldwood works great and doesn't leave a hard glue line when finished. I have grips with over 200 pieces of EVA glued using CC, with not a single problem.

Billy,

I used the contact cement in the glass bottle from the hardwood store. Been a while, don't recall the brand, but I've used the same stuff for other grips with different materials and no problems.

It was my hands that were effected. Kind of like a really bad case of dishpan hands. Happened several times while using that rod, so I changed it.

I assumed that it was the foam grip that caused it. EVA and the craft store stuff are different things, I thought, so I quit using he craft store foam for the whole grip (trim rings aren't an issue). No problem with te EVA foam sold for aking rod grips.

Buddy

Thanks for the follow up. THat's really weird. EVA and the craft store stuff ARE different, the rodbuilding EVA is denser and touger, as well as take teh contact cement more readilay (one coat is enough, whereas teh craft store stuff sometimes needs 2). It's almost like the grips absorbed water and your hands became waterlogged.

I hope everyone who messes with this stuff reads Chuck's post above - he's right, the brush that comes in the cap of the Weldwood stuff is pure crap. Cut it off and just use a Flex Coat or simllar brush. Not that they're great, but they're more than sufficient for applying contact cement and they're certainly a hundred times better than what Weldwood supplies in the bottle.

.............

Best thing I found is from the Advanced Custom Rodbuilding book - a scrap piece of EVA cut to teh shape you want. I have about 200 EVA Applicators, lol. I stopped using the bottle a long time ago, the Pint is not much more $$$ and is MUCH easier to use since it has a wider diameter. ITs' also a lot easier to knock over and spill all over your floor & clothes, adn it will open up in your big $75 Hockey bag and ruin it and evrythign in it.

New to rod building, I would like to try putting different colored rings in an eva grip.It sounds like contact cement to glue the rings together.What is the best way to cut the rings.I thaught about a power miter saw but have not tryed it. Also should I use the colored eva gips from mudhole to get my colored rings. Thanks in advance.
Steve
Fish till you drop