TNP? Gluing magets to ali

[Tim Watts]

Might be one for TNP as he knows about epoxy (hi <waves>)

Best glue for shiny neodymium magnet disc (5p sized) to plain ali?

Epoxy or hotglue. Or something else?

I'm aware ali can be awkward due to oxide coating. And there will be heavy thermal cycling, which killed the foam tape on some trunking - had to screw that in the end.

Just wondered if anyone had experience?

Cheers - Tim

Why?

Have one of a series of mini projects is to put some led tape around the conservatory using ali extrusion to make it nice:

Going to be sticking on the removable uPVC strip that runs around at the top of the windows.

Don't want to drill it (so it cabn be restored later if lights become defunct).

So I'm going to hotglue chunky steel washes to the back of it and replace, then glue neodymium disc magets about the side of a 5p coin to the back of the ali extrusion.

No doubt that it will hold well.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ive generally found that car body filler is better than epoxy for most hack jobs, but its a pain to buy a huge tin if you dont have any.

hot gl;ue willwork biut its noyt that strong.

On balance degrese and use epoxy and warm it a bit before use

neodymium magnets lose their mojo at between 50C and 100C depending on exact chemistry.

I'd say that means epoxy then. Or car body filler.

[alan_m]

I've found the the shiny silver coating on the magnet is the weakest bond (to the rest of the magnet) and just relying on sticking to that will result in it soon failing.

As you indicate, I've used a magnet with a hole that can take a screw.

Alternatively use epoxy to encapsulate the whole magnet as well as sticking it down. Perhaps drill a small hole in the ali so that the epoxy also flows through it forming a glue bridge front to back (easier if gluing to a horizontal surface).

Sandwich the magnet between in between two pieces of material that are physically joined so the magnet cannot move.

[Tim Watts]

We're probably talking 30, 40C extreme peak in summer on a bad day. 5C in winter.

Cheers for that :)

[Tim Watts]

[harry]

Drill some holes in the aluminium to help the glue stick to it.