| Any particular brand that works with these two surfaces (metal and | rubber)? |
There are two basic types -- the fumey kind and the water-base kind. The former is generally better, though I use the latter for laminate countertops and I've had good luck. I also use it to stick vinyl runner mat to plywood and to stick sheet metal to plywood.
| Bennett suggested the thistothat site
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It | recommends Household Goop, which says it is a contact adhesive. | Their site says it's silicone based. If it's what I'm thinking of it's a gooey, clear product that's more of a filler than a glue, but I'm not sure.
| Would you put a rubber washer/gasket on the other side? It would provide | a little protection for the rubber tab as well as a place for the glue | to go through the holes in the base.
No. I'd just glue it.
The metal may be called "pewter" but it's probably steel with some kind of coating on it. The only problem I could foresee would be if the finish is just paint and dissolves in glue solvent.
| | I wonder why no one has produced a family of contact cements each of | which bonds to one or more specific surfaces and to any of the other | contact cements. If I want to bond A to B, I get the A cement and the B | cement, apply each to the respective surfaces, then press them together. |
The function of contact cement is to bond dissimilar materials. It's designed to stick to surfaces and then sticks very well to itself. You paint a little on each surface, let it dry to the touch, then put the two together. There is one limitation: You only get one chance. Once the two sides touch they're stuck. You can't reposition them.
It's not like an epoxy, with an a and b part. It's more like an adhesive, liquid rubber. The flexibility is what makes it work so well. You can have different materials with very different expansion rates and the glue stretches a bit to accomodate that: Wood and plastic. Wood and sheet metal. Plastic laminate to particle board or MDF. Rubber to wood or metal... Rubber roofing cement is similar.
So there's no need for a family of contact cements. It's a type of glue that sticks to itself and works the same way no matter what the two surfaces are. It's an adaptable product. You use one coat on non-porous surfaces; two coats on porous surfaces. You can get the non-water base in small bottles or in quarts/gallons. It will say highly flammable. I think the water-base only comes in gallons and probably isn't as good for what you want to do.
I'd just brush some on to both surfaces, let it dry, then carefully position the tab in the hole and push them together. It should work fine.
I usually use superglue for metal-to-metal where the bond has no gaps. It's great for that but it's not good for much else. For porous bonds, especially where there might be a gap, I use epoxy. For wood I use regular wood glue. For anything like rubber or sheet metal or laminate being glues to anything else I use contact cement. (It's also the best thing for resoling sandals and shoes.)
Silicone adhesive is OK for low-demand things like sticking plastic to plastic where it won't get any stress, but it's not really very strong.