Pound shop glue?

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Pound shop, Poundland or whatever. They flog 4 tubes of epoxy resin glue for a quid. Two tubes of hardener, two tubes of resin. I've had good results with this stuff, until today. The tubes are kept in the garage, but were warmed up before use on a minor silly unimportant job. The job failed. The glue was correctly mixed, was from unopened tubes and after a few hours was like wax on the bit of cardboard I used to mix it on. Does keeping this stuff in a chilly garage affect it, has is got a shelf life? It's been in the garage for about 12 months. I'm not a cheapskate, but when I was dragged into the Pound shop I saw this stuff and gripped a pack.

[T i m]

I have had similar results to you and I don't think I'd consider using it for anything 'important'.

Some (most?) has cured fine but not_as_strong as some more expensive / known brands and some went just like a hard cheese (and it would all have been kept indoors).

You get's what you pays for?

Cheers, T i m

[Brian-Gaff]

Yes it does have a shelf life, but normally only if its been opened or has a leak. What it does not like though is to be stored in a place with large temperature swings. However, it sounds like it was not mixed enough from your description of the end result. That may be for many reasons of course not just human error. Brian

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Yip.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Yeah Brian, it was mixed okay. I gets what I gets for a quid.

[pamela]

Superglue is another pound shop adhesive that can be troublesome. Apart from it being very runny, sometimes it takes ages to set.

It's too hit and miss, so I buy Loctite now.

[Cash]

The two links below might give you an answer to your questions.

Have fun.

BTW, I have used this stuff since I was an apprentice way back in the stone-age on both d-i-y and industrial projects and have never seen such a problem as you describe (but I have always used the genuine Araldite epoxy rather than cheaper versions).

In fact, being a 'cheapskate' some 25 years ago, I used the stuff to stick the base back onto SWMBO's stainless steel kitchen colander - and that has survived all that she has thrown at it with no ill effects - (It'll probably fall off tomorrow after giving it such praise).

Cash

[Adam Aglionby]

The Tommy Walsh branded mitre adhesive, super glue with aerosol kicker is great for a quid

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

I saw that stuff - somewhere - but not near me. I had bad experiences with Araldite used with the same dispenser. But that was a lot of years ago :-( I have put the Poundshop glue in a drawer in my office, this to avoid temperature differential. I'll probably never be able to find it again. Oddly enough my repair has worked, the mix on the cardboard went rock hard overnight. Dunno.

[tabbypurr]

FWIW SP & West systems are preferred to araldite, if you use enough. And they're cheaper than the poundland stuff IIRC.

NT