Glue for styrofoam

[65Buick]

Spray glue for styrofoam, without dissolving it? Or contact cement?

[baileyuph]

65 there is a very expensive spray glue used in automotive applications (I use) that might be the
answer?  The glue is expensive and thinner is too!

Works well through air sprayers.  Check with your suppliers - it could help you.  Strong stuff and
can't be shipped through a lot of carriers.  Need a well ventilated spray area. Be very careful.


Doyle

[kodydog]

I'm thinking Styrofoam like plastic is a non-absorbent material that when applied with spray glue takes a long time to set up and often fails. Spray glue is a watered down version of contact cement. The contact cement you buy in the can is much thicker and would do a better job for the application you intend.


For years I searched for a glue to fix my shoes. In particular, when the rubber sole splits from the bottom of the shoe. I've tried many different types with little success. The problem is finding a glue that will flex with the sole and one that will hold tightly. Recently I found a product by Gorilla Glue that meets those characteristics and as a extra bonus is water proof. I  found it at Walmart, it is a contact type glue that comes in a small tube and called Clear Grip Contact Adhesive.

The description claims it will bond metal, glass, fabric , wood, ceramic, leather, paper, plastic and more. It does a great job on my New Balance walking shoes. Maybe would work on your Styrofoam too.

[SteveA]

The regular gorrilla glue works on dissimilar surfaces.  For shoes - Darren mentions barge glue when he did leather work - which will solve shoe problems.
SA

[65Buick]

Thank you all!

I have looked around and found the cans are quite expensive. And for my application and purposes, it doesn't really make sense.

The shoe glue, I had not even thought of that. And, it turns out I have a tube, which I used to glue to the sole of my expensive hiking shoes back on. I will try that!

[65Buick]

Got it all padded up. Now, the hard part. I will be sewing the cover, though I will say that virtually everything I've seen on instagram has a hand-sewn outside back.  Probably a lot easier to hide the seam with something like a bouclé.

[kodydog]

I assume we are talking about the egg shaped chair.

Yesterday I upholstered the seat front on a big overstuffed chair. Rose cut the fabric using the old pattern and sewed it. The front corners had seams.  I sewed the decking on catching each spring and pulled everything tight. Then I pulled the seat front and stapled under the frame. When I got to the corners those seams were about 1/4 inch too wide. Most likely the old pattern was stretched from use. So I picked them apart and hand sewed them. The same thing with a matching chaise lounge.

Here is my point regarding your chair. Making a pattern where the outside back is sewn to the inside back using a sewing machine is very difficult. An upholsterer may think he has the perfect pattern but when he gets to tugging and stretching the fabric its hard to keep that seam from shifting. And if that seam does not follow the edge fairly close it will look sloppy. Just saying that's probably why they hand sewed it.

A fuzzy, stretchy fabric would help to hide imperfections. I once did a chair like yours for a decorator. She chose leather for a very picky customer. We machine sewed it. It was not a fun job. That was years ago. Today I doubt I would attempt a vinyl or leather on this type chair. Too many better jobs out there.

[65Buick]

Let me clarify -

Yes, the pod-shaped egg chair.

This chair is for my own good, for learning. I may fail, I know. But I'm still going to try.

[kodydog]

It's never a failure as long as you keep at it. Even after 30 years I sometimes have to back up and try again. We upholstered this set 2 weeks ago. Looks simple, right? It was a friggin nightmire. When Rose totaled the hours we barely made min wage.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ivK81bNbbntW6pR17

That's why I do this once a month. It gets my head straight.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/mo4yEudNNqR5TNaz7

[65Buick]

Nice, Kody. My Dad is deathly allergic to fish, so he never taught me. My Uncle, whom I was named after, died when I was 12 before he could teach me.
To this day I have fished once. And that was in a stocked lake.
Everywhere I go, like antique stores, etc. they have loads of rods and reels. But I have no idea what's what or what do I need.

What was the nightmare about that loveseat/chair set?

[kodydog]

What was the nightmare about that loveseat/chair set?

Where to start,

First, when Rose gave the estimate to this long time customer. The customer wrote back in total disbelieve, how could it cost that much. Normally we just blow off people like this but Rose copped an attitude and sent back a detailed list of EVERYTHING involved, from start to finish to accomplish a satisfactory outcome. In another word, that's our price, take it or leave it. That kinda cooled the customers jets and she agreed to the price.

When we went to pick up the furniture the customer told is she hated that country look and was wondering if we could change it to more contemporary or more formal or something, anything that would make it look better. Alrighty then. So we loaded it into the van and headed back to the shop.

Back at the shop I was finishing up another project and Rose spent hours trying to figure how to change the look of this furniture to the customers satisfaction.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PCo6NFdbgvsme2sq6

We decided to change the seat cushions from knife edge to boxed with no buttons. Put less buttons in the back cushions and as per customers instruction leave off the straps that hook around the top posts. Rose found a boxed cushion in storage she could place in the chair to snap a picture to send to the customer for approval. She did.

We were changing the seat cushions. This means we could not use the old fabric for a pattern. And because the arms and back are open we had to match the seat with the boxing and with the seat front on all four sides. Also notice how curvy the pieces are. Lining up a linear plaid to a curvy frame is not easy.

Here's the kicker and a big mistake on our part. The fabric came in two pieces. The first piece was 1-1/2 yards so we decided to cut the boxing and zippers. We still had a little of that first piece left over. I cut one cushion top and bottom from the next piece of fabric and all the cording on the bias. (No way we were going to try to match all that cording too). Rose sewed the first cushion before we cut any more. We were thinking we would cut and match the seat front later. Rose could not get the stripe on the boxing to stay lined up. She would start in the center and it would go off 1/2 inch at the end. I convinced her this was because the front was curved and no way it could stay matched. Problem solved right?

So I cut the next cushion. Remember the fabric I had left from that first piece of fabric? I cut a cushion top from it. I flipped it over and cut the bottom from the second piece of fabric. This is when I discovered the stripes from the first piece of fabric were not the same size as the stripes from the second piece of fabric. They went off 1/8th inch per stripe. And this is why Rose could not get the stripes to match. We've been doing this long enough to know to always check the fabric when there are two pieces. I guess we had much on our minds because we both neglected to do this. From our calculations we barley had enough fabric to finish the job. I cut a new boxing from the second piece of fabric and Rose resewed the cushion. It matched perfect.

I cut and matched everything praying there would be enough fabric to finish the job. In the end there was 1/2 yard left over.

There was a lot involved that we had not anticipated in our estimate. Rose charged an extra $20 to reweb the ottoman, that didn't even cover overhead. We pretty much ate the loss. The customer was pleased as punch.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tPt68DetzJJiajT28


 

[65Buick]

Missed this reply..

sounds like a nightmare Kody. I guess sometimes we try to make a customer happy so that they'll come back in the future.

Looks great, though