I was in a hurry before a pool session last week, and remembered that my foam masik/thigh brace had popped off the previous week. I didn’t have time for contact cement to get tacky, etc, so I grabbed the hot glue gun from our craft bucket. I wasn’t sure hot long this would last since it’s basically just some melted plastic, but it seems to be working well so far. I’ve got about 50 rolls and a dozen miles on it.
Has anyone used this? Did it work?
If it is strong-enough/long lasting, it should be a good option. Much quicker and less mess than contact cement. And is probably a lot easier to peel off old hot glue than to sand down petrified contact cement.
Probably won’t last
The basic craft stuff doesn’t bond very well to hard, smooth surfaces. It needs nooks and crannies, or pores, or roughened surfaces to ooze into and grab.
There are some newer polyurethane hot melts that might be worth looking into.
Hot glue…
Worth a try. Probably won’t hold up on hot days. There is a high temp hot glue…
Sounds too simple and would be SOP if it worked well.
hot days?
If we get any hot days out here this summer I’ll find out how it holds up. 
It’s under the dark green deck of my Pintail, so you’re right that the surface could get pretty warm.
I’ll post back on this thread if/when it falls off.
Hot-melt glue and sunshine
I once camped in a tent where someone had tried using hot-melt glue for seam-sealing. On a sunny afternoon I came back to camp to find my sleeping bag glued to the tent seam.
Nate, you may be the probe boat.
hot-glue
– Last Updated: Mar-23-10 12:09 AM EST –
I've built entire boats out of hot-glue and a few sheets of card-board. Seriously...It was a design-school thing. Obviously, cardboard doesn't do well in water, but I seem to recall that hot-glue itself didn't do well in water either.
Hot glue
will fail and probably sooner than later…
jim
answer - about 100
Rolls that is.
I got about a half dozen pool sessions, about 10 day-paddles, an overnight, and two tidal races out of the hot-glued thigh brace. It came loose during the second day of tidal surfing this weekend.
Not a great record, but I promised an update.
Guess I’ll go back to contact cement.