Glue for Coro and other worx

ElSalZi

ElSalZi

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 24, 2017
Messages
175
Location
Hedland WA
Good morning good people,

We have recently been testing our Coro Model Fabrications skills and have come across an interesting altho fatal flaw in our technique!

We bought 4mm Coro sheets to make a 'Start-Entry' for our sons year 12 final Ball, cut the pieces to shape, screwed up a number of pieces (something about mirroring front and back, left and right, blabla...:confused:) and then using Hot-Glue in your tradition lHot-glue gun to assemble the pieces.

Easy-peezy-japaneeze!

Or so we thought! :(

Turns out, Christmas is in the hottest part of our summer, and by nature, Hot-glue melts thru heating :thumbsup: Learning Right there!!

Guess what happened to our fantastic looking Star- Entry!?!?!

After returning the same way we came and picking up all the pieces and having run out of time, we figured that there must be a better way to do this! Hot-glue is NOT for our Christmas Coro items!

Searching the forums (https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/ungluing-hot-glue-gun-glue.8776/#post-78695; https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/something-different.8739/#post-78232; https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/pretend-coro-fabrication-instructions.3744/#post-32356 and https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/where-do-people-get-there-hotglue-from.2599/#post-22774 to name a few)

It was pointed out that an alternative is Silicone, and/or Sika polyurethane adhesive.

While I need to research their 'yellowing' and Sun/UV resistance, is there any other ideas or glues people are using to cope with hot environments?
 
I've used hot melt glue to tack and Dow Corning 732 Silastic for the permanent joins. It's acetic cure so it bonds better and faster but needs to be kept clear of any copper wiring as surprisingly enough the acetic acid is acidic and will attack metalwork.
 
I use hot glue gun on all my coro projects and so far after a couple of seasons I have not had ANY breakages.
However I can only assume that WA gets more hot days in a row than what VIC does, so this may be a factor.
But yes, I also have used neutral cure silicone for some bigger joins where waterproofing is absolutely required, specifically this: https://www.bunnings.com.au/parfix-300g-clear-all-purpose-silicone_p1232674
 
djgra79 said:
...However I can only assume that WA gets more hot days in a row than what VIC does, so this may be a factor...
Click to expand...

Just this morning, at around 07:30 it was 40 degrees C in our carport (thats NOT in the sun)... and its cooling of at the moment :laugh:
 
I built my coro canes with coro and el cheapo hot glue from bunnings, the exposed glue has turned yellow in the sun and has gone a bit brittle, overall they're still holding together .. in the summer here over xmas we average 35-45 degree's most days, seems to me though the direct sunlight has done more damage, I store them in a garden shed in the backyard that I'm sure on a hot summers day will be a balmy 55 degree's inside
 
That's a good point too, storage throughout the year. Another reason mine is probably surviving longer is my mancave is insulated brick veneer, not a normal tin shed.
 
I've found that hot glue fails quite commonly especially after a season or two. But it also depends on what the coro model is. For small models I find the hot glue is probably good enough but with my bigger models I have tended to hold them together with white cable ties. These hold the pieces together firmly and allow for easily opening up the model to get to the pixels if there is a pixel failure. Up close you can see the cable ties but from a distance at night with white cable ties on white coro, they are not visible.
 
I think it also depends on the quality of glue. I use the Bosch stuff with a Bosch glue gun and had them in the QLD heat for two seasons and Sydney for one and nine have come apart and I have a lot of Coro stuff.
 
tooms said:
I built my coro canes with coro and el cheapo hot glue from bunnings, the exposed glue has turned yellow in the sun and has gone a bit brittle, overall they're still holding together .. in the summer here over xmas we average 35-45 degree's most days, seems to me though the direct sunlight has done more damage, I store them in a garden shed in the backyard that I'm sure on a hot summers day will be a balmy 55 degree's inside
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing, Kal has similar weather to ours (hight of temps anyway) but as I stated in the first post, the hot-glue melted... We built the Star in 2 pieces so we could transport it inside the trailer (didn't want the wind to tear it apart).. so the direct sun light & the heat radiating from the trailer had literally melted the joints!
So be it the glue quality or our weather we don't want to build something only to have it crap itself in our summer weather... So I'm looking for advice/suggestions/experiences that I could try out to see how they stack up.

logandc99 said:
I've found that hot glue fails quite commonly especially after a season or two. But it also depends on what the coro model is. For small models I find the hot glue is probably good enough but with my bigger models I have tended to hold them together with white cable ties. These hold the pieces together firmly and allow for easily opening up the model to get to the pixels if there is a pixel failure. Up close you can see the cable ties but from a distance at night with white cable ties on white coro, they are not visible.
Click to expand...

This would also work - though white cable ties, again won't last too long in the sun (so I've been told) - only experience I have with the multi-pck from our local KMart which are not UV stabilised!

So, please keep it coming I know this may seem like infantile stuff, but for a newbie, this is the beginning 'Nuts&Bolts'
 
Correct, black zip ties tend to be the ones that are UV stabilised, not any other colours that I've seen.
But thanks for shopping at Kmart :)
 
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