Waste reuse? What happens to used hot glue and foam

Maxwell Wang

New member
I have been doing a lot of scratch building lately such as the arrow, the kraken, and the spear, I have lots of hot glue left overs in some really weird shapes and definitely not fit in my hot glue gun.
How does flitetest reuse their hot glue
and what about the scrap foam if it all gets thrown away isnt that a lot of waste?
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
I cannot speak for FT but I save my off cuts and use them for making tail feathers, spars, deck & fuselage formers and the various guages that FT include with their designs.

I also use them as a mixing card when mixing epoxy and as glue spreaders when I am gluing a large area.

The offcuts also make good patching material and even can be used in making a lot of spare power pods.

Used properly and thoughtfully there is very little virgin offcut wastage!

As for the Hot Glue I rarely touch the stuff myself:).
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
I'll save a few of the larger pieces of foam for future builds. Smaller pieces can be used to spead glue and push it deeper into joints. Glue gets used never recycled. If it's unused it remains in the bag. Once in the gun, it stays there until it is used whether it's immediately or sitting there for months.

I am all for being frugal and being a good steward of our planet and all but if I try to save too much I might be providing my wife evidence to accuse me of hoarding.
 

earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
Like the others who posted, I save most of my foamboard scraps for various uses. Never even thought of recycling hot glue. I suppose it would be possible, but I don't have a hot glue mold to put it back into stick shape. Is there such a thing? :confused:
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
You could always pass them on to youngling's with some kiddie glue sticks so they can start making things of their own if you have any mini me's around.