Beam Me Down : Beam Assembly
Assmebling a beam is a straight-forward process. We recommend the use of Perfect Glue #1 and Duro Spray-On Adhesive. For your assigned beam, collect the required foam strips to your work area. After making sure you have all your strips, read the directions on the can of spray-glue carefully. It is important that you only put a very light coat onto each side you will be attaching, as the glue contains ingredients that will cause channeling in a heavier application.
Perfect Glue #1 takes longer to fully set than the Duro Spray-On, so use the spray glue on wider strips, where it is easy to spray the glue and not get too much on the underlying cardboard. PG1 should be used on narrow strips (less than 1.5"), again carefully following the package instructions. Only apply a very light bead of glue to one of the two pieces you are laminating, then use the spreader tip to squeegee the glue out a bit.
Once adhesve is applied, you only have a short time to connect the two sides to each other. For the spray glue, you have 15-30 seconds, while PG1 allows about 1 minute. After the adhesive is applied, carefully line up the two halves and squeeze them together. The spray glue is very hard to pull apart, so be sure to get the strips lined up correctly before allowing them to make contact. PG1 allows a little bit of 'make-up' time, but not much. Once the halves are together, put that sublamination aside with some light weights on top to keep the sides in good contact for about 5 minutes.
While your first lamination sets up, you can go ahead and repaet the process for other pairs of strips in your group. After all possible sublaminations have been made, and you've waited about 5 minutes, you can take those parts and glue them together, making larger subassemblies, again waiting about 5 minutes before attaching the new segments together to form the complete beam.
When your beam is completely assembled, it needs to sit for at least an hour to allow the glue to fully set. You may want to assemble all of the beams on one day, and then finish this workshop the next day.