Adhesives for Ethafoam

Jerry Fahey <jfahey [at] siue__edu> writes

>Over the years I've used hot glue or water based contact cement to
>adhere Ethafoam for shipping crate packing and collection padding.
>Well, being the 21st century, I'm trying to find something a little
>easier to use. I got in touch with the adhesive folks at 3M and they
>suggested one of their Adhesive Transfer Tapes, #950. It's made
>specifically for adhering foam products.

I'm not sure this would work for attaching ethafoam to the inside of
I'm not sure this would work for attaching ethafoam to the inside of
a crate, but it can easily be adhered to another piece of ethafoam
without any glue or tape.  Take a heat gun (the kind that are used
for stripping paint) and barely melt the outer surface of the foam.
When it is still warm and melted, just push the two pieces of
ethafoam together.  When it dries the bond is almost inseparable. Be
careful not to over melt the foam or burn it, though!

We've done this for packing but we also made a small igloo out of
ethafoam "bricks" for a temporary exhibit more than 5 years ago
using that method.  The exhibit's long gone but the igloo is still
holding together.

Christine Mouw
Assistant Curator
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum
West Branch IA 52358


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:21
               Distributed: Thursday, September 19, 2002
                       Message Id: cdl-16-21-007
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