Some suggestions for some really strong adhesive please. The line-spool on my petrol strimmer, has lost the metal grommets/eyelets on the strimmer's spool. The grommets reinforce the 2 holes where the line exits.
This strimmer is no longer made. I'm ordering a pair of 10mm screw-together s/s flesh tunnels, but what glue to use? Needs to be pretty strong, so any suggestions please. It will be used to bond the thread on the FT's and also to glue the FT's to the spool. TIA.
Epoxy. I'd have thought you would get away with basic Araldite if the flesh tunnels are a good fit, or a metal filled one such as JB Weld if not. Don't bother trying to glue the threads (or use Loctite on these first).
Buy a universal fixed line trimmer head (pro's use them)
~~~~~ ?
use them)
Not that sort of pro.
I can get Araldite easily but why isn't it a good idea to put some on the flesh tunnel threads - before screwing them together? The strimmer spool generates high speeds, if the tunnel unscrews, one half can fly of and be lost?
We're NOT talking Madam Whiplash. Stone the crows!!
epoxy is NOT a good adhesive on nylon and polythenes.
in fact the only thing I've had total success with on polythene is spirit based contact, and that aint great. Or modern hot glue for low stress applications.
I missed the OP, so am not sure eactly what is being repaired.
I'm doing a fix on a petrol grass strimmer. There are 2 holes in the hard plastic strimmer spool (where the strimmer line exits) The spool is hard plastic and I'm re-inforcing the holes with s/s flesh tunnels. So the 2 materila that need to be glued together are s/steel and hard plastic. As you know, the spool spins quickly, so the glue has to be very good to withstand the loads involved.
'flesh tunnels'??? I guess its the same sort of thing I have. Hard plastic is good. hotglue may hold that. I'd use car body filler rather than epoxy if you want a resin setting glue.
rough up the plastic and degrease..
These are the flesh tunnels, I think they're worn by hells angels etc -
A neighbour has offered me some Araldite, so I won't be shopping. I only need a tiny amount. If this fails, I'll get either hot glue or body filler. Thanks all.
With araldite and other epoxies
1/. Measure exactly. any surplus of one component will not set.2/. MIX till you are blue in the face.
3/. Apply heat from hot air gun or hair dryer until it all goes runny and translucent. This speeds up the reaction and promotes mixing, and gets the epoxy into all the cracks and fissures. A far harder and stronger glue line results.Epoxies never actually bond at all to anything - its all down to essentially suction against the surfaces, so roughing up the surfaces increases the area.
Most of my experience with epoxy is in bonding metal undercarriages to ply formers in model aircraft. It can and will tear off any metal quite easily, which is why I reinforce with glass cloth. Then the epoxy tears off the ply wood taking the surface fibres with it,.. The best solution turns out to be holes in the ply and lace the undercarriage with kevlar thread, then glass over that and munge epoxy everywhere.
Then the ply former breaks or the whole former tears out of the fuselage:-)
So don't use it in a vacuum?
oddly enough a lump of epoxy and steel is not a vacuum.
Thanks for the info on the hot air gun. I'll get it out of mothballs. Last time I used it was about 10 years ago, attempting to roast coffee, with a colander and a wooden spoon. Not successful, difficulty in giving them an even suntan -:(
hairdryer is just as good.
I learn the heat/araldite trick around 1963, when I wanted to use the muck to support some model aircraft wiring against vibration on a mome built radio control set. fed up with waiting, I had learnt in chemistry that heat speeds up reactions, so mums hairdryer was secretly purloined.
instead of a beige soft blob, I got a sort of amber rock hard crystal.. in 20 minutes.
that part never failed.
My memories from aero modelling in the '60s, was control-line kits courtesy of 'Aeromodelling Plans Handbook' and an Alan Mercury 2.5 diesel, which gave your finger a really nasty thwack!
Then you never ever tried an AMCO 35...
AM25 was a pussy in comparison.
I never worked out why the PAW19D was so much kinder, and so much more powerful.
Car body filler is not so convenient in small quantities. As I understand the description, the assembled flesh tunnels will probably be longer than the spool thickness, so you want a fillet of adhesive on one or both sides to blend the geometry.
TNP is quite right about cleaning, roughening, and using hot air to help the epoxy flow and set. However in this case the epoxy is not particularly required to form a strong bond so it would probably even work on polyethylene or nylon (the spool may be something more stickable).
The spool could be poly, it's not brittle and there is some 'give'. It's about 6mm thick and I've roughened up the hole. You're right, the FT's are longer (8 mm) so I let the extra 2 mm protrude on the inside of the spool. I didn't want it protruding on the outside, in case it hit a stone and got severely dented.
Yesterday I pinched the last of my neighbour's Araldite and did follow TNP's hair dryer method. It's a tight fit in the spool hole and I'm hoping the bell ends will keep it within the spool. However I did decide to smear a little Araldite on the FT's thread. I applied the glue to the hole, so there's a little fillet of adhesive on both sides.
It's all a lot of hassle but sadly this make of strimmer is no longer on sale. I guess, 48 hours of curing should be ok, so hopefully tomorrow I'll get an hours work out of it. I will report back and thanks again.
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