Product Review: Elmer's multi-purpose spray adhesive

I was walking around Micheal's the other day browsing for inspiration when I saw this stuff. I've used spray adhesives in the past for applying flock to terrain and game tables and have never be impressed and always go with the standard woodglue mixed with water and paint rollered out. Times have changed.

My biggest complaint about adhesives I've used in the past is the odor. I'm pretty strong when it comes to heavy chemicals but the spray adhesives I've tested before have pushed that limit. They were terrible, I'd have headaches for days after testing some stuff out, even when sprayed in the garage with the door open.

This stuff has a very tolerable odor. I can't say as too how toxic it might be, but at least it didn't make me physically ill like other stuff has. I'd still recommend being in a well ventilated area....but I wasn't and it didn't bother me much.

Another thing I like about this versus other sprays is that its lower pressure. The big can sprays had a really high aerosol pressure that whenever I used it it would just spray my flock around and it would clump up. Kind of like for those of you in the northeast, when you roll out a snowman. This product seems to have a lower pressure that is less likely to cause that clumping due to blowing the flock around.

Next, it dries really slow. The instructions recommend an hour. Adhesives I've used before would dry in 30-45 seconds so that doesn't give you much time to spray an area and flock it carefully and evenly. I imagine you could spray a 2x4 section of your table and flock it if not, the entire table with this product. I want to run some maximum time tests just to see how long between spraying and applying flock I can take but I imagine that I can take about 5-10 minutes easily.

One thing to keep in mind with this, as with most spray adhesives, is there is a lot of over spray. The over spray is really annoying because the glue doesn't dry while in its mist form like some of the other adhesives. Instead, it'll settle on the floor, table surfaces, anything around your work area. When I first experimented with a little section of foam board I just held it up and sprayed it. I glued paper towel to my stool, and flocked the bottom of a pair of socks and the throw rug under my work bench. To solve this, I just hold a piece of paper strategically to catch any over spray.

Additionally, the biggest thing I was most happy with was it doesn't eat foam!** I'm thrilled enough with that alone to use this stuff anytime I flock a table or terrain.

The only real and unsolvable problem to the law abiding citizen is that it's expensive. a 4oz can costs about 5$. I'd say a 4 oz can would cover 1 x 2 area (two coats), so on a 6 foot table, you're looking at about 12 cans of the stuff. They make an 11oz can of it for about 10$, which is a positive, however the name is slightly different but very similar so I don't know if my raving about this product will apply to that product. Just the same though, that can is expensive too, just relative to the 4oz can, a better value. You're still looking at about 50-60$ in just glue to cover your table.

Finally, like all good scientists, my experiments need to be repeatable to be scientific fact so this is how I tested it; I sprayed an even coat on a piece of blue insulation foam. I then sprinkled woodland scenics green blend over that. I shook off the excess and then applied a second coat. I allowed it to dry over night. In the morning, about 6 hours later, the glue had dried completely (unlike other sprays I've tested in the past that always remain just a little tacky) and when I tried to rub the flock off with some pretty decent and very excessive force it wouldn't budge. Success!

So, in my closing words I'd say that this product is the best I've ever found for adhesion of flock. Any glue I've used in the past always ends up rubbing off over time but this stuff seems like when you put it down, its there to stay. I'd highly recommend this from my first round of testing and we'll see what the long term tests hold for it but for now, I'm very excited and have high expectations that I've finally found a truly perfect and long lasting method of applying flock.