To use a heat gun to seal EVA foam, simply let it heat for a few seconds, and then blow hot air onto your foam from a distance of about 20 centimeters. So, if something were to happen to you whereby you lost control, you should still be safe. You'll start the process by cutting out your paper template. Spread the glue into a thin layer using a wooden coffee stirrer, then allow it to dry for 10–20 minutes. That keeps you from seeing the back texture on the finished piece of armor. Hold it in the desired shape until it cools down. Dec 22, 2010 at 4:35 pm #1676888. This sets the foam … When you heat up the foam pieces and fold it over you ankle as it cools, it will retain the shape that you hold it in. It might turn out alright at first, but then you wind up with a fiberglass shell falling off of the foam underneath. Then use the side of a Dremel 85422 Silicon Carbide Grinding Stone You can just barely see the seam below the curve. Keep heating until … This easy-to-use gun comes with a 70" cable. *** Putting complex bends and curves in EVA Foam armor can be tricky, since the foam is very elastic and flexible. Use an X-Acto knife to cut the piece out of the foam. You can use it to dry accessories for your jewelry, dresses and more. So if it is put on eva foam the foam tends to act as a insulator and absorb the heat hindering the reaction and never letting it cure. Make sure to move the foam around on the hitch ball or you'll get an uneven curve. Move the heat around constantly as the EVA foam does burn rather easily. Vinyl graphics were printed and glued to the foam with 3m 77 and it held up to a fair amount of abuse. This gives you a much smoother surface when you get to painting the armor. After reading a good bit about using eva foam for various cosplay costumes, I went out and got a few sheets of the puzzle piece EVA from home depot and a heat gun. (the boots were on back order). Because of the rotation of the sanding drum, you'll want to grind from left to right. The damage from the runaway bit isn't generally very bad. 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. I had to stretch the fun foam template by almost 2" due to the stretching caused by the heat forming. It's also used for heat forming the foam as well as leaving a tough skin on the surface. BPL Member. I used the same process for the slots cut into the face of the boot top just below the kneepads. I did a plunge cut with the end of a dremel chainsaw sharpening stone to drill each end of the slot, then went back with the same bit to connect the two holes. I did not cut the slots into the kneepad inset until after I had glued the piece down. After the texture has been removed, you can start to heat the EVA foam for shaping. Thanks in advance. They have been cut out using an X-acto knife. The elastic was able to stretch when I walked, and pulled the boot top back down when I wasn't walking. I created human sized DVD costumes a few years ago out of EVA foam. I prefer to move at a rate of approximately 10 centimeters per second. Can a normal or strong hair dryer do the work or do i have to shell out for a heat gun if i want any result? ;^). If you were to work from right to left, the drum will dig down into the foam & not float across the surface. You do this by heating the face of the foam with the heatgun. This is the Doc Marten boot with the EVA shell applied. Just take your metal ruler & mark the line with a sharpie. You don't want to heat it up too much. This will tighten & seal the foam texture. This will “close” the surface of the EVA Foam to prepare it for Sealing and Painting later on. This is where having the flex shaft attachment is very handy. Now you'll need to remove the texture from the front of the piece. They are ready for paint. The next step for them will be to flatten the texture by heating the surface with a heat gun. If your Prop is not moving and does not bend (for example a solid armor) then you can seal your Foam with simple white crafts glue. 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. 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. (I learned this trick from my friend Barry, I don't know where he learned it from). to cut the panel line. Thanks for reading! Cosplay Pros EVA foam sheets are of the highest quality and are used by the best cosplayers for a reason. You can see that there's a fairly sharp bend in the front of the boot top. Stop grinding before you get to the right edge of the piece. Before using a new sanding drum, I like to wear it out a bit first! 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. Once the foam is heated up enough, you'll pull/stretch the foam down over the hitch ball. Run the X-acto knife along the interior of the armor part to make a slice. Bill Doran of Punished Props did a video on his YouTube channel about the various super glues he uses for his props. The sharpie tick marks are to help me match up the pieces and to mark locations for seam lines, center line, etc. You'll leave the glue/seam edges sharp, but if it's an exposed edge, I like to flip the piece over & grind off the edge of the back texture. ... Is there a material that I could heat with a heat gun or in an oven for a little while that would render it flexible and stretchy enough to stretch over a die without losing its shape when it cooled? Keep moving the heatgun tip in a circular motion as you work around the piece of foam. Trace the base pattern onto your foam with either a marker or a sharp object, like an awl or a seam ripper that makes a small groove in the foam. My big concern though is with the actual heat gun itself, in all the videos, people are bringing it near their hands and touching the foam as they heat it. This is the damage caused by the bit running away from you at the end of an edge. Then just apply the Heatgun and the lines will open up! A hair dryer should work fine, it just may take a bit longer to get the pieces heated. Can i warp EVA foam with a hair dryer? Heating EVA foam gives off toxic fumes. These are the boot tops on my Marcus Fenix boots. The next step for them will be to flatten the texture by heating the surface with a heat gun. Upper Right Photo: This is the shoulder paudron pieces after they've been cut out, heated to remove the texture, and the edges dremeled to give them a smooth rounded edge. I don't think you could get away with just gluing the edges of the vinyl. The large pieces are cut & then applied to the boot using superglue. I haven't ever come close to melting or burning the foam. If you do, you'll end up with a burned/scorched spot. That will create ripples as the costume flexes. Here are the main panel lines cut into the boot top. After you've finished shaping/grinding the piece, go back over the shaped areas with the heat gun. Alone or combined with thermoplastics, it will address your needs.Foams that you will find in the cosplay world are usually foam you find as exercise mat or ground sh… This is important to know since many times of armor cannot have seam lines. Otherwise it would have been trial & error to match the curve of the two kneepads. After a while the Catalyst starts to loose its "chemical energy" and it takes a very long time to cure ( if ever). Heat molding foam/neoprene. This will create a sharp edge later. Dremel 85422 Silicon Carbide Grinding Stone, On to Plastidipping and Painting the Armor->. YES, it can pull dents out of foam, I do it all the time. Cutting and Shaping the EVA Foam. When you're removing the texture (or when heating the foam for shaping), make sure to keep the tip of the heatgun about 2" from the foam. ... heat directly to the surface, making sure I got both the treated and untreated areas. There isn't really a set temperature, just when the foam becomes easily bendable. 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. I just didn't take a photo of that, so the glove free pic will have to do! Date published: 2020-10-23. 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. Use a heat gun LIGHTLY cut the lines with your X-Acto knife. The boot & boot upper will not be glued together. Now I'm applying details made from 2mm & 3mm fun foam (Silly Winks). If you heat up one spot too much, it'll blister. You can make panel/surface detail lines by first tracing the pattern with a ball point pen. 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. That usually seals most of the pores. (and could throw off the shape of the piece). Use an X-Acto knife to cut the piece out of the foam. Having helped a friend with shaping the armor and doing foam work myself, I have found the best thing to do after getting it heated up and shaped is to throw it in the freezer. Keep the heat gun about 2"-3" away from the foam, and keep the gun constantly moving. It's just another thing to clean up. Our standard EVA foam comes in a density of 38kg/m3. 3m 77 will adhere the vinyl to the EVA foam. Robin discovered that an old 2-5/16" hitch ball clamped in the shop vise was a perfect tool for forming rounded sections of foam. Using the EVA foam as a sort of sanding block, dip it in the water and get a few drops to stick to it, then "sand" the glued surface you wish to level/shape. Over a semi-soft cutting surface like a cutting mat or wood cutting block, use a sharp X-acto for craft knife to carefully follow the lines you've traced. 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 couldn't say it any better, so instead of trying, here's his video. For shaping the foam, make sure to heat the foam from both side before you begin. 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. It's a piece of junk. Again, like the slots in the kneepads, I did plunge cuts with the dremel AFTER I applied the fun foam to the pauldrons. I dremeled the texture from the backside to minimize the seam between the two layers. Use a couple pieces of double sided tape to hold the template on the foam while you trace the pattern pice with a Sharpie. ... Now I have a hard deadline coming up and no way to shape my eva foam. Use a couple pieces of double sided tape to hold the template on the foam while you trace the pattern pice with a Sharpie. This means your projects will have a professional final appearance. As you can see, the damage isn't bad, but makes a little more work to clean up. I personally have the Wagner 200 watt heat gun, you can find this model nearly anywhere. The same method applies to heating a synthetic wig that can take heat. There are ways to make the foam hold it’s shape better. It'll grind off material too quickly, and leaves a striped texture from the grit on the drum. As you can see, the kneepad is made from two halves, that are heat formed & then glued together. Parts don't… Steven Evans. You can lay the flex shaft along the foam so just the edge of the dremel stone cuts into the face of the foam. The Process is simple but takes time and patience to master. 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). You don't want to heat it up too much. Your main tool here is the heat gun, they come in many different shapes and sizes but you really only need a small basic one. A smooth dense surface means your flex paints and glues will adhere with ease. If you release pressure from the trigger the heat gun will turn off immediately. 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. As long as the foam is hot, you can shape it into rounded or curved shapes. 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. After the texture has been removed, you can start to heat the EVA foam for shaping. Ever worked with Worbla or EVA foam for your cosplay? ), a mason jar; or you can just shape it with your hands. This shows the addition of the kneepads to the boot. Meanwhile, mark up the chin piece with a line, insert the knife halfway into the foam at a 45-degree angle and cut along the line on both sides to make a groove. Just make sure to turn the piece of armor around & clean up the rest of the edge, working left to right. 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