How to Make Cardboard Crafts HARD and STRONG After They are Finished (the Cheap way) 

This 72 yr old woman thinks you are adorable. I love your curiosity, experimentation, and the fact that you are so humble and honest. Your videos kick up a lot of questions and those that join in show their curiosity's as well🤗

You're a very good speaker. Thanks so much for the information, helped me out a lot!

you can use Mod Podge. It dries faster. Varnish, but you can't use a heat gun on it. I have used glue water and napkins, tissue paper, brown paper or any paper really. It's poor mans Paper Mache and stands up to a heat gun.

You are good at so much more than cardboard crafting - you are so great at communicating,;I get your points so clearly. By the way, I have been using sandez seller to cost, because I saw it on a video. Can you share how to attach handles to make them able to bear the weight of what they are carrying?

Because of cardboards porous nature and absence of a 'grain' orientation to the paper fibres within it--the slightest exposure to humidity & moisture begins to compromise it's stability. It is recycled-grade kraft paper chosen for it's general compression strength/crush resilience in corrugated form, but overwhelmingly it's cheapness & disposability: not meant to last. Protecting the cardboard from moisture using a type of resin offers the best durability as it prevents water from reaching & softening the paper fibres. There are specialty, 3-layer corrugated cardboards that are assembled from stiffer paper grades[..eg: bamboo paper..] & better quality binding adhesives; however the closest the average person can get to transforming generic brown carton material into something stiff like balsa or very lite ply would be epoxy and or acrylic resin. I spent a couple summers about 9 years ago--experimenting with Gorilla glue/PU adhesives, epoxy resin, Minwax-type WBPU and lacquer-based wood fillers...purely to find the 'best'[..most effective, least->'modestly' toxic, cheapest & easiest to apply..] stiffening compounds. Things like wood glue, WBPU & ModPodge will work, yet all introduce moisture to the process; so the cardboard is somewhat compromised unless you force drying it rapidly--which can lead to warping/distortion of your parts. The other adhesives I mentioned all require volatile solvents to properly 'thin' them: - Xylol/Xylene for G.G./PU adhesives(..many suggest water or alcohol for thinning PU resins: DEAD WRONG!..)...Very effective stiffener, somewhat 'cheap' but xylene is pretty toxic. I had good success using it for RC planes but the toxicity encouraged me to stop. - Acetone, denatured ethanol or M.E.K. solvent[..this is HIGHLY toxic--protective gear NECESSARY; AVOID if possible!..]-->for thinning epoxy resins. Epoxy is best strengthener but tricky to work with consistently...far from cheap...somewhat toxic. Lots of disposable mixing stuff/gloves required... - Cellulose-wood filler for carpentry finish work: dries thin & light but lacquer thinners evaporate completely--leaving no stiffening resin behind as binders. Not very good at keeping moisture out nor ultimately stiffness... There is one combination I haven't had a chance to try, which might provide a good balance of stiffening for cardboard...moisture resistance...cost & complexity...degree of toxicity to handle. This would be acrylic plastic. Dissolve pieces of acrylic in pure acetone until it forms a low-viscosity liquid resin; mix in a small proportion of denatured ethanol and/or xylene to slow the very rapid evaporation of the acetone. A couple drops of epoxy 'Hardener' thoroughly mixed in may provide some beneficial properties too. Now apply this acrylic liquid on your cardboard parts; a paint sprayer or airbrush would provide the fastest, most even treatment. The solvents used should ensure the acrylic resin penetrates into all the paper fibres without weakening them as water would; these solvents all evaporate quickly & completely and are not quite as toxic as others mentioned. (Hopefully..) the solid acrylic should evenly impregnate all the cardboard fibres & it's corrugations; making it stiff, light and waterproof.

Thanks!

Finally my project won't break ❤️

I iron suran wrap onto cardboard sometimes a couple layers depending on how strong I need the cardboard

Dont use a heat gun. Even on its lowest setting its too hot . Use a regular hairdryer.and just blow it enough to get a skin on it so it wont run and drip off. I have a some experience with this and the person commenting above about gluing brown craft paper tissue paper ect works great with the glue to strengthen cardboard was exactly right. And because of the water content the, "decoupage", technique will shrivel or wrinkle but as it dries it will relax to a flat mostly smooth hard finish.

Hi! You've got yourself a new subscriber! Have you tried making a resin out of polystyrene? It's a super-cheap solution to this! Things like single use plastic food items, styrofoam insulation, foam food containers etc, can be very easily dissolved in acetone, or other dissolvents, but acetone makes it dry fast and odorless. It's easy to make as thin or thick as you want, depending on application. Watching styrofoam turn into a fraction of its volume in minutes is fascinating, and it makes for a hard waterproof surface.

Question. I made buttefly wings out of very thin cardboard. Painted and glued foil on it. Bent the wings upwards. Its very flimsy. The bend made them crack. Its for a costume. My question is how can i harden this project including the bent wings? Keep in mind i want a clear gloss look that will go over paint and foil. Thanks so much for your help and advice!

Can the wood glue be covered with paint or do i have to paint over the woodglue

Thank you so much for all your efforts to help us👌👌👌👌👌👌

I use epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth and I coat the fiberglass cloth and poxy resins and stick it on there and then coat some more epoxy resin on top and I do this a few times and it makes it really really hard but if I'm building some kind of like model or something I'll just use craft wood which is like 1/4 thick piece of wood and I just cut it with a band saw I think it's called and just cut the pieces out the way I needed to cut or I'll use a jigsaw if I find a blade that won't like mess it up or one of those round blades I forgot what they call them but it's they use it for grinding metal or for cutting metal and I just use it for sometimes wood and they have little tiny discs that I can use and what the tiny does it can use it for small pieces

Would this work on very large projects, like my doom crucible? My main problem is probably the fact it is so flimsy. Do you know anything that could fix that aside from 2 pieces of cardboard? Because i already am using that and it doesnt help much. (And yes, i will add a piece of cardboard against the grain of the other 2.)

Would you compare the Finished results to like ABS plastic?

Can I use the wood glue over cardboard that has already been painted?

Looks like the wood glue is filling in the gaps from the corrugated part of the cardboard, since I believe wood glue can also be used as a filler. I have a gallon of titebond original that I now want to try this with.

This is too damm underrated 😵

would it work with water resistent glue or does it not work

Does this make the project weatherproof? I want to do a Halloween project outside and I'm looking to find a way to waterproof cardboard for month.

Will be the texture of the cardboard looks like a real wood?

What if you watered down elmers school glue...then used a spray bottle to saturate the cardboard and let it dry?

How much weight will this add to the cardboard?

So i just have to use glue and put some water in it and brush it on a cardboard?

How about coating with automotive resin?

Can you paint over it??

I searched for this because I want to make a car bumper out of cardboard and harden it. So can it withstand weather

Is it waterproof?

Does this method work after being bent

Shellack

Can I se a hair blow dryer?

Use hot glue gun to harden cardboard

Guys just buy 1kg of epoxy resin and some thin sheets of glass fiber.

Am i the only one who use fevikiwk to make the cardboard strong 😂