What's the lightest weight substrate that will adhere to wood?

[Zsolt Paul]

Designing a crazy piece of furniture that the templates will have to be left inside, so it has to be SUPER lightweight and should adhere to wood. It has to be 1/4" thick and can be cut with laser. MDF, masonite are just too heavy. THe pieces will roughly be 30 x 40 inches. Any suggestions?

I was considering using insulation fiber boards, which are super lightweight, but are probably not great at adhering to wood.

Thank you!

[Bruce Boone]

The lightest and strongest thing I can think of is to make composite sandwiches. The middle can be foam, like Styrofoam, and the faces can be super thin wood, fiberglas, or other materials. You get the extra strength by spacing them apart with the foam. The idea is to not let them buckle, so each face is stiff and needs to be glued over the whole surface. Modeler's plywood 1/16" thick glued on the top and bottom of a sheet of 3/4" styrofoam would make extremely stiff and lightweight templates. They should be stiff enough to stand on if glued well. The wood can be lasered to shape, and the foam could be sanded or hot wired to flush.

Another idea in the same vein is interior doors. They are essentially constructed this way.

[Zsolt Paul]

Thanks Bruce! I need them to be 1/4" thick though. Do you think it would be possible to have wood + foam + wood to be at 1/4"? That would require the foam to be 1/8" which I'm not sure if it exists....

[Doug Griffith]

Foam core comes to mind. Laminate a very thin veneer if needed.

[Tom Bull]

Foam core sounds right to me, too. It should adhere soundly to wood, just make sure your adhesive is compatible. Regular wood glue should work fine, I believe.

[Mike Null]

Look at Johnson Plastics for foam core and ask how much they'd charge to apply 3m adhesive backing.

[Zsolt Paul]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I am going to look into foamcore. Is this something that large chains carry or is this pretty much going to be an internet order? I was hoping to get this today...

[Lee DeRaud]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I am going to look into foamcore. Is this something that large chains carry or is this pretty much going to be an internet order? I was hoping to get this today...I've seen it at Aaron Brothers and other art/framing shops, also at Staples, so probably OfficeMax and Office Depot as well. That will at least get you some to try if you need to order larger sheets or mass quantities.