White Glue to seal upholstery foam?

Jared Lee

Something I have seen costume builders do around the internet is use water thinned white glue/ wood glue / Elmer's glue to seal closed cell foam such as L200, and EVA foam.

I was wondering if you could use the same thinned white glue to seal upholstery foam? In the foam fabrication lessons I learned that  spray glue from a can was used to seal the foam. So could you use thinned white glue, from a paint gun to seal the top of the foam so latex will not absorb into the foam?

You may risk clogging up a paint gun, but it could potentially save a lot on sealing glue.

How about brushing thinned white glue on the foam?

Christopher Vaughan

I think this would work for hard surfaces, but the dried glue would crack on any organic movement (ie flexing the arm ect.) for that you need to use a flexible glue like rubber cement, super 77, ect.

Jared Lee

That makes sense. Thank you for the answer.

michael aycock

I'm using regular upholstery foam for my project. I did some test for sealing it and tried Plasti dip spray. I used two coats and then used spray paint for a base color. I didn't notice any difference between the two. Maybe this is because the foam is just too porous.

Jared Lee

Hello, Michael! Thank you for the reply.

Where you using the upholstery foam for a creature build?

Or something like an armor?

Did you coat it with liquid latex?

michael aycock

I'm building a reptilian gorilla like monster out of upholstery foam. I don't know what else to call the foam because that's all the bag says. I bought it from Hobby Lobby at an inch thick (the thinnest they have). I'm using this foam to act as the entire body. Here is a very recent image of my progress. https://www.facebook.com/DarthAyato?ref=hl#!/photo.php?fbid=705996832754120&set=a.705995789420891.1073741830.411198492233957&type=1&theater
I haven't tried coating it with latex because as I understand it is expensive or atleast to me it sounds that way.

Jared Lee

Latex can be a bit pricy.

I suppose you could just spray glue your build and and skin it with panty hoes, or spandex. Then airbrush it/ paint it.

 

Miguel Ángel De la sotta

The foam will absorb the latex. You could spray glue as Jared said, or maybe put some latex in a flat surface, dry it with a hairdryer in order to make a thin film of latex, then aply it to the foam with a little latex sprayed on it. You expand the film when you are aplying it to the foam and you can get some interesting textures. 
I usually give the latex a bit of base colour using food dust(?) colorant; i try to avoid the liquid colorant because it could mess with the latex properties.