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Spent 6 months gluing EVA foam with the wrong adhesive before a con volunteer set me straight
I built a full set of Mandalorian armor using regular super glue because it was cheap and I had it around the shop, but the pieces kept cracking at the seams every time I bent them. At Denver Fan Expo last spring, a guy running a foam workshop took one look at my vambraces and asked why I wasn't using contact cement, then showed me how his joints flexed without breaking. Has anyone else committed to a build method for way too long before realizing there was a simpler, cheaper way the whole time?
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rivera.keith22d ago
Denver Fan Expo 2019 I saw a guy who had glued his entire Iron Man suit with hot glue from a dollar store. He was at the cosplay repair station crying because his chest piece had delaminated an hour before judging. The volunteer helping him just pulled out a bottle of Barge and within twenty minutes had the whole thing fixed. I had been using hot glue for my props for almost a year before that, thinking it was fine as long as I used enough of it. But here's the thing nobody talks about - it's not just the type of glue, it's also how you apply it. Most people don't let contact cement tack up long enough, then they press pieces together too early and get weak bonds anyway. The real trick is waiting until it's dry to the touch but still grabby, usually takes longer than the bottle says.
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