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Cardboard Lumber

Step 5Get some Glue

Get some Glue
You have a couple options here, and by a couple I mean exactly two:

Wheatpaste: At less than a buck a gallon, this is what I will be using. You can view my wheatpaste instructable here, or basically heat 1:4 part flour/water until it get's thick. Wheatpaste, when made properly and applied correctly will be pretty much as strong as the glue that holds the corrugations of the cardboard together (they use a starch glue, white flour is starch...). It's used by paper machers and also graffiti artists to post paper pictures to concrete walls and create a rock hard irremovable poster. I would recommend adding any bacteria deterrents you have (see instructable).

1:1 Wood Glue: You might be able to find a gallon of wood glue at your local hardware store for about $10 if you're lucky. This should be diluted with water 1:1 because we're covering such a large area, and only want a thin coat, and also to help the glue soak into the cardboard. This comes out to $5 per gallon. The advantages of this is it's much stronger, the corrugations will always rip before the wood glue seams, and is easier to make and apply (but not much). After doing this with wheatpaste, I would recommend this way, simply because the wheatpaste is not as sticky as it needs to be.

Note: You could also use Wallpaper paste I guess; it comes in a powder at the hardware store.

You will need a minimum 2 gallons of either to properly glue the amount of cardboard I am doing.
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3 comments
Jul 13, 2011. 8:46 AMredcore4 says:
could you use water-based varnish to stick the layers together? i have lots of varnish kicking about at home but no glue!
Jun 12, 2009. 7:55 AMsedona007 says:
AWESOME!! On your SCRAPILE page, how did you come up with variances in colors? Did you stain your cardboard first or what? I can't wait to try this!!
Jun 11, 2009. 10:29 AMDoyen451 says:
If you want to make a super strong wheatpaste just add some wood glue or wallpaper paste to your mix at about 5 parts wheatpaste to 1 part wood glue or wallpaper paste. I'm also told that you can add a bit of white sugar to the wheatpaste to make it stronger although I've not had experience with it.

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