Hardeners for Styrofoam

[joe]

For the past six months I've been asking around for a "For Sure" hard coat with EPS foam. I currently have a couple of signs, in the shop, and need to get working on them.

To save time, let me go over what I've previously done. Styrospray was my first attempt and I may return to it. It's main problem was it's too flexable. I need a coating that's truly hard. Hard enough a baseball will bounce off of it with any damage shown. I've built several which are now showing some faults.They were sprayed with exterior succo/cement. They are now showing joint cracks. Concrete and stucco end up being heavy when applied to a crack proof thicknes. Although they're definately hard enough, details are quickly hidden, and they are way too heavy.

It looks as if I'm going to need two different topcoats. The first as a hardner folowed up by a more flexable texturing coat.

The latest test was with good old Durhams Rock Hard Putty. That stuff is a dream to work with and may be the winner for my first coat.

These signs aren't cheap and should get the best of materials. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Where is Bill P. when I need him?

[kartracer63]

Joe,

Check with Glen Kadelbach at Innovative Foam. I went to the camp at his shop. He works a lot with foam coatings. www.innovativefoam.com

[navigator7]

Joe,
I'm looking for the same thing.
In the foam biz, they call it Theming" or "Props" I believe.
I had a customer who wanted a 26' tall dinosaur replica of his logo. (He didn't want the $86,000.00 price tag ;-(
I went to a carver in BC who said she sprayed bed liner plastic on her foam models and then gel coated the outside.. The problem is...the equipment to do that is lights out expensive.

I found this and don't know if it's the same as what you call styrospray:
http://www.smooth-on.com/Spray-Mater...287/index.html

But then I found this:
http://spraymaxliners.com/garage-floors
Spraying your garage floor with a bedliner product.
It's a long video...just watch the gun part.

If this new system is true...spraying hardcoat might be getting cheaper by the day?

I got the best information (2 years ago) from these guys in Canada:
http://www.3dcutting.com/products-frogcoat.php
Heavy Industries is their corporate veil and talent pool to apply real world solutions using the machines Streamline Automation makes.
These guys are awesome.
They changed their website and screwed up all the old pics they had.
Check out the dinosaurs....best I've seen.
http://www.heavyworld.com/

HTH

[mitch_prest]

some of you guys that do a lot of foam might want to take a look at the frogcoat site. They have tooling for cutting foam with a 10 inch length of cut...

m

[joe]

I, for one, really appreciate the links you fellows have posted. Each diserves close inspection and review.

[joe]

Chuck,

Thanks again for the links. It took some time but I've finished the searches. Here's what I've found.

Smooth On offers a spray gun simular the others like Demand Products. It costs approx $750 and needs a booth with fresh air. The coating material are in the $80. range.

The truckbead liner materials attacks EPS foam.

Frog has some attractive 3D art but their spary system is megga expensive. Your correct about Heavyworld. The website doesn't work for me.

Still searching

[navigator7]

Glad you looked Joe!
Heavyworld musta hired an out of work hollywood website builder. They Foo Foo'd the website to please the web artist, IMHO, and not the public. The website worked on my Mac but what a PIA.

Before, it was a beautiful simple website full of incredible art work and real achievements in the theming and prop biz.

Three or four years ago I was exploring a Streamline machine.
After the over all costs past half a mil....there wasn't enough room in my small town for all the ginger bread it needed. ;-)
Especially a half mill.
Dealing with the waste stream was a huge cost.

HeavyWorld sent me some samples of their plastic system. You literally could bash it with a sledge and only a mar at the impact. Easily fix-able. It truly was amazing stuff but it cost. I think it was melted plastic extruded to shoot out a gun.

A great comic thing they did was create this foam carved i-beam from EPS foam. They coated it with something....not plastic....but Old Timers has got me. It is artistically finished to look like a rusty i-beam with stains...I assume. It feels cementitious.

I just finished standing on it. If I wanted to break it I could but it would take many tries. I can't break it by hand. No way EPS foam could support me with that shape and would fall easily apart in my hands!

48269.jpg
48270.jpg

It's worth it having comedy like this in your shop. I never tire of watching people wonder WTF is this piece of rusty steel doing on a very weak shelf in the shop? They try and pick it up and nearly knock themselves out. Great conversation starter that any salesman or artist would relish. ;-)

[joe]

Thanks for posting

Your I beam gives the impression of weight and stregnth. They have a great image idea.

No doubt there are coating materials with very hard characteristics but us little guys can't justify the expense.

Thanks to this forum and others there's a steady stream of suggestion and products. At sometime I'm sure there will be an answer, hopefuly not too far down the trail.

The criteria is:

Does not melt EPS Foam.
Not dangerious.
Easy application.
Affordable.

This afternoon I will experiment again with Styrospray 1000. They recommend the Wagner, $19.00 sprayer. It was also recommended to sprinkle on sand, adding texture increasing adhesion of the final paint surface.

I'll post pix when I have something intersting.

Joe Crumley
www.normansignco.com

O, by the way, the I beam looks to have a coat of Sculpt Nouveau Iron finish. Anything with SC Iron patina looks like the real thing.

[scootie]

Joe, love the sign work you do, see lots of it here and the Aspire forum.

On coating EPS and light weight foams, we use the 2-part urethanes with a cartridge gun like mentioned above. This is the same equipment the guys doing truckbed liners use, maybe a nearby shop would coat your foam projects, they should have access to the urethane coatings, if not let me know and I'll send you a company contact I buy from. The coatings are sold in case lots of (6) 1500 ml dual cartridges, and covers app. 130 sq. ft. at 1/8" thick for $165. This comes out a whole lot more economical than HDU, I like the HDU for hand carving but for CNC stuff, a $15 2" thick piece of 'blue-foam' and $80 worth of the coatings makes for a lot more profit compared to $350 plus for the HDU. It's kinda messy and requires a fresh-air respirator hood, we lay cardboard on the shop floor and around the area where we're working to catch any overspray. This stuff sets up in about 5 to 10 minutes depending on the temp and humidity and once set you have a hard time getting of anything you don't want it on. The finished coat ranges from smooth to a light orange-peal finish depending on your spray technique. It can be primed with latex and finished with any paint or texture that is compatible with your latex, or can be primed and finished with automotive paints. Really tough stuff, if you need extra protection two coats could be applied by keeping in mind the thickness and allow for machining to maintain details.

Larry
www.elliott-design.net

[dakers]

I went down to visit the largest foam monument maker and spent the day seeing how they operate and what they use and why. That was about 10 years ago. some coatings required primer before the acrylic aggregate to prevent failure so they said polyurea was their choice coating at the time. after months of study on the sprays, the cost, the hot wire equip and the space needed i decided to just buy the wholesale products ready to go. Since ten years ago there has cropped up so many new wholesalers i cant keep up with them. A good model for a company that seemed to be doing great with monuments was Denyse sign company. which used to be woodgraphics.
the website is www.woodgraphics.com they have had phenominal growth and have done well with the foam monuments.
i decided not to try to make them but i am interested in reading about people who do not give up like i did. Maybe the answer is just around the corner for a suitable coating