Household glue

I'm building a tool "kit" for a new home renter (bunch of kids who just graduated from college and now have their first house rental).

One of the toolboxes in the house-warming kit is the 'glue box'.

The goal is to have one (and only one) kind of the most used glues.

  • PVA wood glue (for non-flexing porous surface repairs)
  • Styrene-butadiene rubber ("Shoe Goo" flexible leather cloth repair)
  • Polyepoxides, (2-part epoxy for strength in things like porcelain)
  • Ethyl cyanoacrylate (non-flexing plastics repairs, must be small tubes)
  • Latex rubber cement (for flexing plastic repairs)

The goal is to handle many types of common situations.

What other types of glues do you stock in your glue kit? And what use is it best for?

Reply to
Logan MacEwens
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I would never give a bunch of kids renting my house a box of glue. If they have a problem I would send my handyman over or fix it myself. Turning idiots loose with tools and particularly a box of glue is just asking for trouble.

Reply to
gfretwell

As a homeowner for 54 years, I've never kept glue around. Most times it dries up before a second use so I get it as needed. I don't recall the last time I actually used an adhesive.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I seldom use any glue. Usually by the time I need it, the glue I have bought in the past was old and would not stick well or had dried in the container.

Just buy glue as it is needed.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

I agree with the "buy as needed". I've had too many tubes of glue harden in the tube. But to answer the OP, he forgot one of the most useful of all glues: "JB Weld". I use more JB Weld than anything else.

Reply to
Bud

On Mon 24 Sep 2018 07:55:29p, Logan MacEwens told us...

I don't "keep" any type of glue "on hand".

At the moment I have two glues in thehouse, a super glue and a wood glue. Each bought for a particular repair, and so far each only used once. They'll probably be no good by the time I might need them again.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

That is why I like Epoxy. It doesn't really start curing until you mix it and it sticks to lots of stuff. I keep a 3 or 4 types around. Sometimes I will use a liquid style and a modeling clay type in the same joint. Use the liquid to wet the surfaces and the clay to fill the voids. You end up with something really tough. The other thing I figured out is if you are trying to save a caulking gun tube of RTV (silicone), use a long nail like you use on "K" gutter (6-7" long) to plug the spout. Even if the tube starts curing on you, the nail will still be back in the wet stuff so you can get some of it out. I have a box of ring shank ones I got on a closeout somewhere that work very well. I am under whelmed by poly urethane glues like Gorilla glue. Regular old yellow waterproof wood glue works better at a fraction of the cost. Super glue is always a one shot deal so buy those 6 packs with a few drops in each tube in the drop bins at Ace, Harbor Fright or Northern for a buck or so.

Reply to
gfretwell

I have never found "Super Glue" to be worth the price, and it's usually sold very cheaply. It's just worthless. Nothing stays together. Almost any other glue is better, especially epoxy types.

Reply to
Bud

Yoostabee epoxy in the twin tubes could last for years. Now that they are in twin syringes I've had them get thick, as you say, by the time I need them.

Reply to
Mike_Duffy

I disagree with the buy as needed, but maybe you guys don't live as far as I'm used to living from stores, and maybe your stores are open 24/7 (although glue isn't usually an "emergency item", I agree).

I have used JB Weld in emergencies, but only on cars, and usually to fix a cracked plastic pipe or some such plastic part that gets very hot, but that can sit for the couple of hours it takes to cure, and then use for a few days until the replacement parts arrive that I order online.

To be clear, the word "JB Weld" is a brand name, where chemicals aren't branded, so it's almost completely meaningless to say JB Weld (since they can legally label coffee or milk JB Weld if they wanted to).

That's why you'll never hear me say "Gorilla Glue" or "Elmers Glue", and where I hesitated in using "Shoe Goo" to explain what Styrene-butadiene rubber glues were - but I figured nobody here knows that chemistry).

Having explained that JB Weld is a meaningless term, I do know what you mean when you say that brand name, which is usually a two part poly epoxide, which we already covered, didn't we?

What's different about the JB Weld poly epoxide from any other poly epoxide (particularly the "Kwik" branded faster-acting poly epoxides)?

Reply to
Logan MacEwens

Each type has its merits and demerits.

For example, latex rubber cement is great for plastics and paper that can't get wet and which you have to easily clean up the residue on.

Meanwhile, nothing beats PVA for gluing wood, for example, but it takes at least 24 hours to cure and has to be securely clamped together in most cases.

Nothing beats styrene-butadiene for fixing tennis shoes, for example, but again, it has to be clamped tightly for a period of time longer than you feel like holding with your hands.

Nothing beats poly epoxides for sheer hardness and resistance to extremes of temperature, but again, you have to keep them clamped for quite some time to allow curing.

Are there any other common types we use in our households?

One critical advantage of the ethyl cyanoacrylates that you seem to dislike is that they bond relatively quickly, in the span of time that you can hold two irregularly shaped parts together.

Reply to
Logan MacEwens

We were using "super glue" before it hit the mass market (Eastman 910) You need proper surface prep, they actually recommend a primer, and this has pretty much zero "filling" capability. You need 2 surfaces that come together with a very tight fit. Then it works very well.

Reply to
gfretwell

I fixed a carbon fiber radiator cap on my Camaro with JB weld (epoxy) and metal window screen as a reinforcing medium. It lasted 3 years that I had it and may still be there if the car is still running

Reply to
gfretwell

I haven't used an adhesive in the last hour... Contact cement for a little boot repair. Couple of days ago it was superglue and hot melt glue to put the nock and ferrule back into a carbon arrow. Then there was the double sided foam tape to reattach a trim piece on the pickup. And the carpenters glue. And the Gorilla glue, the foaming type not the wood glue. Shoe Goo for odd jobs including shoes, JB Weld both the 5 minute for fast, low strength projects and the regular.

Reply to
rbowman

Different horses...

Reply to
rbowman

We kept the Eastman in the refrigerator next to everyone's lunch. I glued my wife's finger to her thumb. It was easier when nobody knew what it was.

The thicker types work pretty well for small gaps, or filling the joint with baking soda can work.

Reply to
rbowman

What's different about JB Weld 5 minute poly epoxides and other faster acting epoxides? And we haven't even gotten to the structural acrylics, polystyrenes, or even solvent bonding yet...

Reply to
rbowman

JB Weld has some filler material in it, similar to the older Epoxy Patch. If you are in a hurry, you can speed these up with heat. The dash of a car parked in the sun makes a great "oven" for it. I got a check sorter going by epoxying a card guide with 4 hour epoxy and baking it for an hour. I am not sure what the actual joint strength was but it made it through a multi million dollar "capture" (not a small deal to a bank worried about the interest on the "float"). ;-)

Reply to
gfretwell

On Mon 24 Sep 2018 08:42:05p, told us...

I totally disagree and I've used it many times on various materials. I have items that were repaired with "super glue" well over 20 years ago and they're still intact.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

I have seen it but I wrote it off as an inappropriate use of an otherwise good product.

Reply to
gfretwell

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