Replacing Isenglas with Acrylic Glass

[eze2bme]

Labrador ... I used a hot glue stick made by Floralife ... it's called Floralife Hot Melt (do a Google search for more info) ... a friend who does floral preservation of flowers uses it and I tried it as one of my tests and it worked better than regular glue sticks or silicone adhesives. The glue sticks are 7/16" in diameter and 10" long.

The glue gun I used is a Surebonder Glue Gun and has a high and low setting ... and believe me ... at the high setting it will blister you quickly! Even with the thickness of the vinyl with reinforced back the heat from the glue was very hot. I bought the glue gun from Hobby Lobby. I used the HIGH setting.

My test application was using a strip of the vinyl 4" x 1" ... and glueing the last 1" onto the acrylic. Once dry I could not pull it off of the acrylic when pulling parallel to the surface. I tried pulling away from the surface (at a 90 degree angle) and it still didn't want to budge. The panels are constructed with the vinyl surrounds (frame if you will) in such a manner as the vinyl wraps around the acrylic and is glued to the front and back of the acrylic ... so I actually have the vinyl glued on both sides of the acrylic thus giving additional strength ... if that makes sense.

 

[bateau beau]

The EZ2BME enclosure looks great! I've got the "real EZ" and some of the panels need replacement. My local canvas lady and I have been talking for a couple of years about a DIY EZ2 replacement, and now we know how to proceed!!! Thanks for the input!

 

[labrador]

EZ2BME, Thanks for the input. I'll talk to the guys at Dglass to see if they know of any problems and report back to you when I get an answer. Sure looks to be a winner in both looks and MONEY!

 

[DeeRow]

...Only time will tell ... but I think that this will work as well as or better than Isenglas....

Hey Tom,
It's been four years, how did your enclosure hold up?
Mark

 

[rhprop]

Thanks for bringing this post back to the top. I am just starting on the same project and this is a wealth of info.

 

[eze2bme]

See thread above entitled: Acrylic panes incorporated in canvas

 

[MikeP]

WOW! I'm impressed. I'm pretty much a believer that I can do anything mechanical-related but I wouldn't have tried that. We're doing the aft enclosures the easy way - paying somebody to do it!

 

[Carver370]

If you look in the other thread I posted some pictures of Polycarbonate canvas work I had done last fall.