3M Dual Lock—Q's & A's and Tests for Canoe Uses

[Mike McCrea]

“An option to use Dual-lock with minicell foam is to first attach a very thin strip of wood (like 1/8/ or so thick) to the minicell using contact cement, and then apply the Dual-lock over the wood strip.”

That interstitial piece of thin wood is the perfect solution.

Minicel or other foam, contact cemented to varnished or urethaned wood holds very well, and Dual-lock self-adhesived to wood holds equally well.

FWIW one DIY’ed spray cover uses both snaps and Dual-lock. For the same extra insurance I had a bead of epoxy around the perimeter of the Dual-lock strips.

PB210059 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

PB210077 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

What about a piece of glass tape epoxied to the foam and then stick the Dual-Lock to that?

I just bought some 1.5mm ABS sheet to use for stiffening packs, presumably the foam would stick to that as well?

 

[Mike McCrea]

“What about a piece of glass tape epoxied to the foam and then stick the Dual-Lock to that?”

“I just bought some 1.5mm ABS sheet to use for stiffening packs, presumably the foam would stick to that as well?”

We tried epoxy, actually G/flex, on a large minicel slab seat pan adhered to inside a composite hull. I don’t mean to keep using the Post-it note comparison, but the whole thing fell out a month later with the gentlest tug. The only thing holding it in place was gravity. I’m not sure epoxy works well with foam.

Had we used contact cement, properly coated, timed and heat gunned, that seat would never have fallen out, or been removable without considerable elbow grease poking, cutting and grinding.

I know the Dual-lock stick very well to Royalex. There are test pieces on Royalex scraps from 2 years ago that would be a PITA to pliers-pull free. But it doesn’t stick to foam worth a dang.