I've used Araldite for 40 years or more on all kinds of diy repairs and I've found it pretty good at sticking hard stuff to many other types of hard stuff. I've nearly run out and need to get some more but it occurs to me that adhesives might well have moved on in 40 years without me noticing.
Are there better adhesives out there these days?
epoxy adhesive comes in a huge range of formulations depending ion what you want to bond, and whet conditions you are exposing the subsequent joint to.
Araldite is probably the worst of all possible formulations. or was. I use 'model shop' epoxies. Mainly 5 minute stuff and stove it in the Aga at about 100C for best results.
In message , The Natural Philosopher writes
When I wanted to get into boat building and not become too sensitised to epoxy, I contacted a few people to find out where to buy industrial quantities of quantities of resin.
Almost everyone pointed me to the makers of Araldite as being one of only a handful, if that, of actual manufacturers of the stuff. I made contact and Ciba-Geigy (I think it was) pointed me towards an appropriate "manufacturer" of a suitable formulation who used their resins.
I don't think epoxy is perfect, and the effect of UV light is a real problem, but I haven't actually found anything better.
My biggest complaint with all chemicals, paints etc., is that it is so difficult to find out what is actually in things, what is compatible and what possible side effects and long term deterioration to expect. What I need is a much better memory and simpler, more clear data.
I'm still looking for polyurethane glue that someone here suggested for a particular task. Homebase had lots of things with fancy names, but not many tubes said what they actually were.
Epoxy is still the king of glues. There are certainly better suited glues for a fair few apps though,
There's also a wide range of epoxies and additives available, check out the range of west systems products.
NT
I've recently discovered BondLoc - having watched a bedroom fitter use it for sticking plinths on bedroom furniture.
It comes in two containers - an aerosol containing an activator, and a small bottle with a nozzle (bit like super glue) containing the adhesive. You spray one surface with the activator and let it dry (almost instant), spread adhesive from the nozzle on the other surface - and then press them together. You've got a rock solid bond in about 10 seconds.
It wouldn't work if you had gaps to fill, or in cases where you couldn't position the items accurately first time - but for things like plinths, it's great (as long as you don't want to take them off again!). Like all things, it's horses for courses - and Araldite still has its uses - but for sticking things where gaps need to be filled, I tend to use Gripfill, since I can apply it with a sealant gun and it doesn't need mixing.
On a slightly different subject, I've also recently discovered pocket hole jigs - for drilling pocket holes which allow boards to be screwed together in corner joints or side by side, with no screws showing on the outside. Apologies if this is old hat to some of you. [In case you don't know what I'm on about,
"Steve" wrote in message news:Syn4n.5874$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe26.ams...
Depends on what you are attaching and the speed of cure needed. e.g. One epoxy I find quite remarkable is JB Weld. I have used this a multitude of hard to do repairs of the years after 1st having it recommended to me to fix a crack on the cast iron engine crankcase of our Citroen diesel. The oil pressure sensor mounting split. I was fitting a secondary oil filter at the time and was screwing in the tapered oil feed take-off and pressure sensor fitting when at the last tighten I heard a crack. Starting the engine later resulted in an quite serious oil leak. Examination revealed the crankcase boss split because the casting oilway had been drilled off-centre and the casing had cracked on the thinnest side :-( Anyway short answer was two liberal coatings of JB weld, the 2nd around a supporting jubilee clip and suffice to say the repair - subjected to vibration, hot oil at pressure, road spray etc lasted 5 years until the car was sold. We have since used it on fuel tank repairs, difficult plastics such a toolbox clasps, model helicopters etc. Its only downside we have found is the 24hr cure time to ensure a good bond and the fact it can sag unless rotated / repositioned during initial setting. I gather there is a fast cure 5 min version but we have never used that. Araldite for us never sort of 'set hard' and although well mixed never seems to cure as 'hard' as JB Weld. Of course there are the Araldite metalised epoxies but again we find them a little down on performance when it comes to a difficult repair so tend to get used for non critical repairs. To be honest some of the Poundland epoxies give a bond as good as the 3 to 4 times the price Araldite product.
Better epoxies. They've been around as long as Araldite, just not so obvious in retail packs.
Get a 16 quid West System small pack (search this newsgroup last week) from Axminster, and some of their fillers too. I use about one of these a year. Also search online for advice on filling it. A thin epoxy works better and is stronger than Araldite, and you can thicken it appropriately as needed.
Then there's UV-cure glue, which is coming up fast. Two grand's worth of curing light is now down to 80 quid (search eBay under dentistry) and the stuff is both strong and practically instant. Great for glass.
That sounds like the stuff DG fitters used when they installed my windows the other day
What did it look like? This is what I bought:
actually used it for ...at first I thought they were just using Super Glue because of the type of bottle but then heard one asking for the spray and saw him using the spray then the "glue" I see that stuff can be used on PCV-u or (UPVC if you prefer) .
That's polyester, not epoxy.
There are some situations where epoxy is not the easiest or most suitable. Where some gap-filling is needed, where large amounts of adhesive will have a tendency to flow away from where it's wanted, and where some strength reduction is acceptable, the polyurethane in a cartridge is very useful, e.g. Selleys Liquid Nails. I was sceptical at first, but now I'm frequently finding uses for it.
Not according to the manufacturers web site data sheet.
Not according to the manufacturers web site data sheet.
Not according to the manufacturers web site data sheet.
Titebond from Axminster?
for a quick'n'dirtyy bodge nothing beats hot glue in a gun
sticks almost anything to anything (fairly strongly) quite gap filling and very very fast.
Doesn't give you much time to position anything, so can only be used to spot fix. The super glue? mentioned earlier has the benefit of curing instantly, but only after a whiff of the activator, which appears to be a gas of some kind because it doesn't have to physically touch the glue. It allows DG installers to fix long lengths of floppy trims in stages i.e. they can get the bottom bit fixed, then work their way upwards
10-15 seconds really. The modern 'glue pot'
Or Gorilla glue. Or anything referred to as PUR...
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