Be sure to wear a respirator and do this in a room with good ventilation.-----Using a heat gun on medium heat and low blower (if available), heat the flowers. For shaping the foam, make sure to heat the foam from both side before you begin. Heat Sealing is done by simply using a heat gun or Hairdryer to gently heat up the foam. Lower Right Photo: You'll need to remake/adjust the patterns for your fun foam pieces after you've heat formed the main EVA foam. The boot & boot upper will not be glued together. Use a couple pieces of double sided tape to hold the template on the foam while you trace the pattern pice with a Sharpie. These are the boot tops on my Marcus Fenix boots. I just didn't take a photo of that, so the glove free pic will have to do! This shows the addition of the kneepads to the boot. The damage from the runaway bit isn't generally very bad. There are ways to make the foam hold it’s shape better. Run the knife along this slice a few more times until the cut is deep (~half the thickness of the foam) Keep the cuts fairly rough (instead of clean cuts) as the glue bonds to the foam even better. As you can see, the kneepad is made from two halves, that are heat formed & then glued together. It'll grind off material too quickly, and leaves a striped texture from the grit on the drum. This will “close” the surface of the EVA Foam to prepare it for Sealing and Painting later on. There isn't really a set temperature, just when the foam becomes easily bendable. You can make panel/surface detail lines by first tracing the pattern with a ball point pen. 3m 77 will adhere the vinyl to the EVA foam. Heat molding foam/neoprene. Keep the heat gun about 2"-3" away from the foam, and keep the gun constantly moving. Cutting and Shaping the EVA Foam. Keep the heat gun about 2"-3" away from the foam, and keep the gun constantly moving. It’s actually possible to burn your foam by keeping it focused on a single area for too long, so keep it moving! BPL Member. It's also used for heat forming the foam as well as leaving a tough skin on the surface. This was achieved by grinding out 1/4" deep channel in the back side of the foam. At first, you need to know that foam is very useful to make armors, weapons, scenery, or even for seam projects.Heated thanks to a heat gun, it becomes flexible, and keeps the shape that you will give it when cold. You don't want to heat it up too much. LIGHTLY cut the lines with your X-Acto knife. They are ready for paint. Your best bet is several coats of PVA Glue (Mod Podge, Elmer's White Glue etc). Use a heat gun I did not cut the slots into the kneepad inset until after I had glued the piece down. This will tighten & seal the foam texture. This sets the foam … I know some people use hot glue & other adhesives, but I've found that my coating/painting aheres better if hot glue is not involved. That will create ripples as the costume flexes. This is important to know since many times of armor cannot have seam lines. The next step for them will be to flatten the texture by heating the surface with a heat gun. Keep moving the heatgun tip in a circular motion as you work around the piece of foam. Dremel 85422 Silicon Carbide Grinding Stone, On to Plastidipping and Painting the Armor->. Steven Evans. Bill Doran of Punished Props did a video on his YouTube channel about the various super glues he uses for his props. Craft foam can be heated with a hairdryer or heat gun and once it cools it will mostly hold it’s shape (though I’ve found the shape to be more flimsy). Our standard EVA foam comes in a density of 38kg/m3. If you heat up one spot too much, it'll blister. Again, like the slots in the kneepads, I did plunge cuts with the dremel AFTER I applied the fun foam to the pauldrons. In short, there are a lot of different ways to seal EVA Foam the two most well known and widely used methods are using either Plasti Dip or White Crafts glue (wood glue) to Seal EVA Foam. If you do, you'll end up with a burned/scorched spot. A smooth dense surface means your flex paints and glues will adhere with ease. Without adequate safety features, your heat gun experience could turn into a total disaster. Use a couple pieces of double sided tape to hold the template on the foam while you trace the pattern pice with a Sharpie. That keeps you from seeing the back texture on the finished piece of armor. ... heat directly to the surface, making sure I got both the treated and untreated areas. I had to stretch the fun foam template by almost 2" due to the stretching caused by the heat forming. I used the sharpie tick marks that I made earlier as a guide. Date published: 2020-10-23. Resin won't actually stick directly to EVA foam. Spread the glue into a thin layer using a wooden coffee stirrer, then allow it to dry for 10–20 minutes. A new sanding drum is too abrasive for working with the eva foam. This heat gun will be a useful addition to your tool kit. I attached an elastic strap to the pull loop of the boot & velcroed it up high inside the boot top. You do this by heating the face of the foam with the heatgun. The elastic was able to stretch when I walked, and pulled the boot top back down when I wasn't walking. I personally have the Wagner 200 watt heat gun, you can find this model nearly anywhere. If you release pressure from the trigger the heat gun will turn off immediately. You can see that there's a fairly sharp bend in the front of the boot top. Once the foam is warm enough, you can use your knee, a hitchball clamped in a vise, or even just your hands to strech, form, & bend the foam. Then use the side of a Dremel 85422 Silicon Carbide Grinding Stone The large pieces are cut & then applied to the boot using superglue. And you can use just about anything for shaping a rounded or curved surface - a glass bottle, a bowl, a ball of some sort, a snow globe, a wig head, a duct tape dummy (this is the best for shaping armor! This gives you a much smoother surface when you get to painting the armor. Otherwise it would have been trial & error to match the curve of the two kneepads. I want to make an armor cosplay with 6MM EVA foam but i dont think i want to buy a heat gun just yet. I dremeled the texture from the backside to minimize the seam between the two layers. I usually grind the new drum along the side of the disc on my bench grinder, but I'm sure you can use a grinding stone, concrete floor, etc. The fundamentals of creating something out of those crafting materials primarily consist of heating the piece and holding it in place until it cools down to retain the shape that you want. The same method applies to heating a synthetic wig that can take heat. (I learned this trick from my friend Barry, I don't know where he learned it from). As long as the foam is hot, you can shape it into rounded or curved shapes. Dec 22, 2010 at 4:35 pm #1676888. Thanks in advance. Move the heat around constantly as the EVA foam does burn rather easily. Then just apply the Heatgun and the lines will open up! The next step for them will be to flatten the texture by heating the surface with a heat gun. This means your projects will have a professional final appearance. You (generally) don't want to point your heat gun right at one spot without moving it, always keep it waving back and forth on the piece of foam you will be bending. (the boots were on back order). Heating EVA foam gives off toxic fumes. A hair dryer should work fine, it just may take a bit longer to get the pieces heated. This is the Doc Marten boot with the EVA shell applied. Upper Left Photo: The pauldrons have been heat formed. Lower Right Photo: These are the pauldrons after Plastidip. This easy-to-use gun comes with a 70" cable. to cut the panel line. Using your heat gun go from one end of the foam to the other. I've also found that you can rough cut foam (especially on EPP) and skip sanding it, just heat it with a heat gun and as the suface particles melt the foam suface smooths out nicely. Ever worked with Worbla or EVA foam for your cosplay? 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