Working with Gatorboard®

  Gatorfoam or Gatorboard® foam board is made up of a multi layer composite of extremely dense  extruded polystyrene foam board bonded between two layers of Luxcell resin-impregnated, wood-fiber veneer.  It's a heavy duty and strong foam board that works great for superstructures.  The Luxcell wood-fiber veneer that tops the polystyrene foam core are two thin sheets of plastic like material that does contain wood-fibers.  This creates a moisture-resistant layer that helps to form a rigid board that is resistant to bending or warping. The smooth plastic like finish offers ideal paint coverage and is an exceptionally hard, smooth surface that is uniform and blemish free.

  When building with Gatorboard®, and joining the parts, you will cut the first layer of plastic away and the layer of foam (about 1/4") and sand down the to the plastic to give a clean surface to CA (super glue) the parts together.

TIPS

- When cutting Gatorboard®, use multiple short cuts with a sharp blade!  Do not score the board and bend to break as you can do for styrene.

- Do not use liquid type styrene glues to attach styrene parts.  The Gatorboard® can soak up these type of glues.  Use medium or thick CA type glues.

- Although the Gatorboard® is very strong for it's weight, the top layers of the Gatorboard® can be brittle.  This makes it less tolerant to shock.  The edges of the top layer of Gatorboard® can chip if dropped or bumped during construction.

-  Because the outside layers contain wood-fibers, this leaves the surface with a slightly rough texture.  During construction this surface is easy to soil (dirty) because of the texture and because it's white.  If you need to clean the surface before painting, lightly sand the area with 400 grit sand paper.  DO NOT use any type of liquid cleaner to include isopropyl alcohol.