Glue launch lugs to styrofoam?

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Mushtang

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I have styrofoam shuttle that I want to try launching on a Zooch shuttle stack, but I don't think gluing launch lugs onto styrofoam will work. As soon as the stack launches I'm sure the lugs will rip off the bottom of the shuttle.

Is there a technique for doing this that might work?
 
You might try using a combination of glue with a fillet and then a strong adhesive tape over the lug and fillet.
 
White glue - especially the thicker ones like Titebond Wood Molding and Trim Glue or Aleene's Tacky Glue - should work fine. If you're concerned, you can strengthen the connection by gluing paper over the launch lug and onto the foam.

-- Roger
 
On my Guillows Shuttles I embedded a piece of wood (probably a piece of square bar) in the styrofoam. I glued it in with 5min epoxy. This also served as a standoff for the launch lug the holds the Shuttles to the rocket body. Likely overkill for the Zooch sized one.
 
I'm not familiar with the Zooch shuttle stack, so, I'm not sure how much thrust, or, what your weight restrictions will be. But, my thoughts would be to counter sink a strip of balsa/bass/lite ply into the styrofoam to attach the lugs to.


Lol, what Dick said a minute before I posted!
 
On my Guillows Shuttles I embedded a piece of wood (probably a piece of square bar) in the styrofoam. I glued it in with 5min epoxy. This also served as a standoff for the launch lug the holds the Shuttles to the rocket body. Likely overkill for the Zooch sized one.

This is a Guillows Shuttle that I'll be using on my 1.5x scale Zooch Stack. The shuttle I built for it just tumbles so far, and I wanted to send it up with a glider that actually flies.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! I'll definitely try the epoxy first, and if that doesn't work I'll move up to counter sinking a piece of wood to help.
 
Glue foam with foam. Sand the lug all over to rough it up, then attach it with Gorilla Polyurethane glue. I've used it to glue foam to foam with great success in the past.
 
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Lots of good techniques here.

One more to add that works for me is to inset a small tab of thin plywood into the foam. About 3/16" to 1/4".
I have done this and simply glued the lug to the edge of the ply tab with the tab edge flush to the foam surface and I have also done it by extending the ply tab up and out of the foam by the diameter of the launch lug. In the latter case, I glue the lug into the "corner" of the foam and plywood tab location.

On my RC Guillows Space Shuttle, I wanted smaller and less visible attach points than 1/8" launch lugs and associated dowels.

I ended up attaching 1/16 aluminum tube pieces about 1/2" long in two places on the non scale booster. I then made up two small 3/64" music wire hooks (nice and loose inside the 1/16 tubing) and glued them to some small tabs of 1/32 ply and inset them in the belly of the shuttle.

Having two attach points in a row keeps the shuttle from wiggling around on the booster while on the pad.

The front hook engages the front aluminum tube by about 3/16". The rear hook engages the rear tube by about 3/32".

Works great and is nearly invisible.
 
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Generally speaking when gluing anything to styrofoam or other expanded foam products I start by setting the lags in white or yellow glue. Allow this to completely set up then apply a very good wide radius Fillet with Devcon 5-minute epoxy. Even on the lightest weight foams I've had only the slightest of styrofoam melting due to the heat generated by the epoxy cure.
 
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