Gluing paper gameboard over existing gameboard...

My favorite glue for most every case where I'm sticking the whole surface of one piece of paper or cardboard to the whole surface of another piece of paper or cardboard is a spray adhesive from 3M called Super 77. You can buy a can of it at just about any office supply store or craft store.

It's a permanent spray adhiesive so there are a couple of things you're going to want to do. Assuming you don't have something callled a "spray booth" (which is very likely the case), you'll want to get an old cardboard box or box lid that's at least a little larger than your surface. Place one of the items (in this case the new paper surface) face-down in the box/lid and take it outside. Lightly coat the back of it with Super 77. This will keep most of the overspray in the box/lid and any other overspray off of your floor/carpet/furniture.

There's no need to wait more than 15 seconds or so. Then position the paper VERY carefully over the board and gently press it down. I often find it easiest to line up one edge and a corner perfectly and then roll the paper down onto the board. Remember that this is permanent adhesive so if you start to lay it down and discover that your angle or position is wrong, as long as you've only layed a little bit you can probably pull it back up. After to reach a certain point you're out of luck.

(If laying the paper down straight is really difficult then you might instead try an adhesive called "Spray Mount" (made by Krylon, I think) available from the same places -- it's repositionable, kind of like spray rubber cement. It holds down quite well, but you can grab the edge of the glued down object with your fingernail and pull it back up, leaving little to no residue. It can peel up, though, especially if you fold the item, so it's non-ideal for a game board but would probably work ok.)

Once you've glued all of the paper pieces onto the board you'll want to score the fold line before folding the board. To do so get a nice long straightedge, preferably longer than the fold. Lay it flat on your board and position one edge over the middle of of the fold area. Now run the back of a table knife or any other thin and hard but NOT sharp or serrated item along the edge. Your goal is to dent the paper nicely so you can see a visible crease but not to poke through the paper at all. This gives the top paper a "guide" about where it should fold. Now slowly fold the board. If you see that any part of the paper isn't folding the right way just encourage it with the table knife. You'll only need to do this once -- from then on the board should fold and unfold nicely.

FL,

I've heard you mention that you have used a good spray on laminate in the past, do you remember the brand and technique you used for it? I assume it's a pretty simple procedure, probably using the cardboard box technique.

-Darke

Here's another thumbs up for using Spray Mount, which makes life just so much easier all around.

Aye. Spray Mount works the same way but comes in an aerosol can. Rubber cement rules unless you want it to be permanent.

This thread revival reminds me that I have an all new method for gluing down game boards that I now prefer, especially if I suspect the board is only going to be good for a couple of tests before needing replacement.

Scotch makes a glue stick with what they call "Restickable Adhesive," which is to say Post-It Note Stuff in a glue stick.

My new method is to print out my overlapping tiles, then coat the entire backs of them with this glue, creating a giant post-it (but with glue everywhere on the back). I position one of the corner pieces and then position its neighbor, overlapping as appropriate (I now print them out so they have a minimum of 1/2" of overlap) -- since you're using always-temporary glue you can reposition it over and over until it matches perfectly.

Then I take a straight-edge and an x-acto knife and cut through the two sheets, right down the middle of the overlap (along its length). I peel the excess strip off the top and then lift the other half and peel the excess strip out from underneath, and then seal them back down again. Et voila, a perfect match. Any residue that's on the top just rubs off with a quick swipe of your fingers. The glue stays down as long as I want, and yet peels off leaving virtually no residue when I'm ready to replace the board. Way cool.

-- Matthew