Mounting large EPS heads on sticks

[Rainmaker]

Hey everyone, I tend to be the conductor on the "Overthink Express" so not overthinking has me worried

Our current production, we need to mount a 2*2*4 EPS foam (1 pound weight foam) head onto a stick of some type to act as a puppet. My plan is to bore out a hole slightly bigger than my dowel/PVC, pour a boatload of gorilla glue into it, insert the pipe, clamp as best I can and bob's your uncle.

On stage the pipe end not in the head will be in a flag corps belt/holder thingy and the puppeteer is just moving the head up and down.

Any reason to do anything more complicated than this?

 

[Gage]

I would go slightly smaller with the hole so you already establish a good friction fit, that way if the glue fails the thing isn't free to do whatever it wants. What gorilla glue are you planning on using? The normal variety that most places tend to sell foams up a bit as it dries in an attempt to fill small cavities, but is pretty weak. I would much rather go with a good hot glue, especially if you go with a friction fit on the dowel. It will be a good bit stronger, with the bonus of a very short dry time.

 

[Rainmaker]

Well it's a big chungus of a foam block so definitely don't want any wobble. I was thinking the standard foaming style gorilla glue since I've had good luck with it in foam applications before.

I have a really nice glue gun but I'm assuming I'd need to get 9"-1' of the pipe into the head based on the size and I don't know what type of luck I would have getting the glue in there and friction fitting a 1-1.25" pipe/dowel almost a foot in. But again I could be back on the Overthink Express

 

[Gage]

Well it's a big chungus of a foam block so definitely don't want any wobble. I was thinking the standard foaming style gorilla glue since I've had good luck with it in foam applications before.

I have a really nice glue gun but I'm assuming I'd need to get 9"-1' of the pipe into the head based on the size and I don't know what type of luck I would have getting the glue in there and friction fitting a 1-1.25" pipe/dowel almost a foot in. But again I could be back on the Overthink Express

I would coat the dowel in hot glue, plunge it into the foam, and then clean up the excess. Trying to force glue down after the dowel is inserted would definitely be a challenge, to say the least. I should also point out I have a vendetta against gorilla glue, as its really given me some bad experiences on many occasions. Because of this, I do tend to have a bias against a lot of their products.

 

[jtweigandt]

I use the minimally expanding great stuff foam (for window and door installation) for this purpose. Also not a bad idea to use a machine screw and some washers and a nut to "through bolt" to resist rotation/breakdown. That's how I mounted my Cinderella horses, and they were very large pieces. Hot glue will actually melt some foams and make a bigger hole. Gorilla needs a more stable substrate and good part match to really bond to.. it's pretty brittle and "hollow" I get more strength with the great stuff.