For a general and scholarly article about Adhesives see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhesives

Adhesives By Purpose

Wood

PVA
Animal
Resin
Polyurethane
Acrylic
Epoxy

see Wood glues

Metal

Epoxy
Polyurethane
Contact

Plastics - PVC, ABS

Solvent glues
Solvents
Household gloss paint will glue pvc, but is less strong than a solvent welded joint

Plastics - hard

Epoxy
Polyurethane
...

Plastics - polyethylene, nylon

No glue can stick these directly
Flamed polythene and nylon can be glued
Melting the surfaces together also works, if both materials being joined are the same substance. Local heating can be achieved on flared circular joints by spinning while applying pressure.

Fabric

Latex, eg Copydex

Paper & Card

PVA
Gum
Glue sticks (eg Pritt-stick) (PVA or PVP)
Spray-type photo fixing etc
Wallpaper paste
Starch

Oil lines

Red hermetite

Plaster

to consolidate & stabilise loose plaster:

dilute PVA
limewash

Adhesives By Type

Cyanoacrylate

aka superglue, crazy glue
CA (cyanoacrylate) is famous for accidentally gluing skin together
debonders available to unstick skin,
cyanoacrylacte activators are available to speed up setting to 2 or 3 seconds, but these reduce final strength.
For non-porous surfaces.
Its low shear strength enables it to be used as a removable glue in some cases, eg for mounting items to a block on a lathe.
can be used as a thread lock
Cyanoacrylates are used to glue human and animal tissue after accidents. The medical grade is a slightly different formula with improved medical properties, but standard superglue also works and was previously used medically.
CA is also effective at stoping bleeding at trauma sites.
When added to baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) Cyanoacrylate glue forms a hard, lightweight filler/adhesive (baking soda is first used to fill a gap then the adhesive is dripped into the baking soda). This works well with porous materials that the glue doesn't work well with alone.
Thin CA is occasionally used as a tough glossy wood varnish for small items such as turned pens.
Moisture triggers setting
Opened bottles keep longer if stored in a container with a desiccant (eg silica gel)
Cured CA can be removed with acetone or methylene chloride.
A few hours in the freezer can make it brittle
Accidetal gluing of eyes is a real risk with CA
Very low flash point

Epoxy Resin

Araldite is a well known epoxy resin formulation
2 part resin
Available as liquid resin tubes, putty sticks, or in standard 380ml building cartridges with self mixing nozzles.
Epoxies come mixed with many different fillers and modifiers, giving them a range of properties
Tough
Good chemical resistance.
Car accessory shops sell tougher epoxies than Araldite.
The quick setting types are much weaker
Vulnerable to UV, which causes degradation.
Heating the mix (in tinfoil on a low ring, or over boiling water) until runny makes it set very much faster. Don't overheat it.
Some types are heat resistant, some not. The ones that aren't may claim they are on the basis that they survive heat, even if they do lose all strength when hot.
Heat while setting makes it more heat and chemical resistance once set.
More strength and cost than polyester or vinylester resins.
Epoxies are used as powder coatings (a tough paint-like finish)
Electrically insulating, but metal loaded epoxies can be conductive
Suitable for work where failure could cause injury, eg chairs, fixing heavy loads to walls, structural repairs to wood & masonry, etc.
Suitable for wood, metal, glass, stone, and some plastics.
Vinegar will clean up uncured and semi-cured epoxy, but not once cured.
1:1 resin to hardener ratio typical, but ratios of upto 5:1 are also available.

hot-melt glue

Almost instant setting
Handy for creating structures where glue needs to set at each stage before the next can be glued
not a strong or durable glue
Most common hot melt glue stick chemistry is amorphous polypropylene plus tackifiers and fillers. Several other chemistries also exist.
Polyethylene requires temperatures above those of standard retail glue guns to work, if you put polythene in an ordinary glue gun it will just soften enough to block it.
Low melting point glues and guns are also available. Often used by kids due to nearly instant setting.

Pdf hot melt glue datasheets

PVA

PVA has a wide range of uses in building and DIY.

There are White and yellow types of PVA
A good general purpose wood glue
Reduces permeability of cement mortar & increases adhesion
Use as a plaster size
softens when wet
Exterior grade PVAs available, but are not waterproof
Not suitable for woodwork where failure could cause injury, eg chairs, beds ets.

Acrylic mastic type

(e.g. "solvent-free Gripfill/No-more-nails/etc")

Caulk

Caulk is a low cost flexible acrylic formula used for filling
Paintable

Solvent based building adhesives

(Gripfill etc)

? type

"Sticks like SH!T" etc

Polyurethane

Polyester resin

tough
sticks a wide range of materials
used in fibreglass work
used to fill damaged exterior woodwork, eg sash windows
available in clear or colours
car body filler is polyester resin
All resin glues contain various fillers to reduce cost and modify their properties.
10:1 resin to hardener ratio is typical
ideal for filling rusted metal windows

Vinylester Resin

Silicone

Silicone Sealant is a satisfactory glue in shear, but has little strength in tension.
Silicone is used to glue glass aquaria together, but this is a tougher formula than builders' silicone sealant.
Building silicones are RTV, room temperature vulcanised.
There are several types of silicone
For more information see Silicone Sealant

Solvent cements

Solvent based cements are plastics dissolved in a solvent. These cements, and solvents alone, are used to glue soluble plastics.

perspex in acetone glue is used to glue acrylic, aka perspex.
Solvent weld is used to glue PVC pipe and trunking

Tile adhesives

Most are modified cement formulae
Ready mixed types contain a set preventer that evaporates on use.
See BAL Adhesives guide for information on different types

Wallpaper Paste

how long will it store once mixed?

Starch

Glue for wallpaper, card & paper.
To make starch glue, boil some starch (eg flour, oats, etc) until it changes from white to semi-clear. Add a little alum to prevent mould if you're not using it immediately.
To make a starch gluestick, parboil a potato. Suitable for gluing paper, just wipe with the potato and press together. Will not store.
Low cost, complete safety and easy to wash out; ideal for kids

Adhesive Selector Grid

Which adhesive is best for any 2 given materials?

http://www.elessar.org.uk/adhesives.pdf

http://www.thistothat.com/

Structural Adhesives

Structural adhesives or engineering adhesives are used where failure could cause injury or other undesired consequences. These high strength & higher reliability adhesives include:

epoxies
polyurethane
acrylic
cyanoacrylate

Preparation

In the great majority of cases, to obtain a good bond surfaces should be prepared so they are:

clean
dry
loose or flaky material removed
degreased

Roughening smooth surfaces increases the adhesive bond strength, and in many cases is necessary to obtain sufficient strength.

Moulding tools

Sometimes adhesives need to be moulded.

Fugee & Fugenboy

PTFE

Polythene

Fillers

Fillers are low cost dry powders present in a lot of adhesives. They reduce cost and in some cases can improve strength. They also affect the adhesive properties to some extent.

Additional fillers can be mixed into adhesives to reduce cost further. Each type of filler will have effects on the glue formulation. Adding fillers does reduce final strength in most cases, but fibrous fillers can sometimes increase it.

Dry powders such as talc and iron oxide are often used to extend adhesives, but weaken the final result.

Sand is very tough, and can be mixed into resins, which bond to it well. This reduces cost, but the resulting mix is not sandable.

Sawdust consists of lots of short fibres, and thus can act as reinforcement as well as a bulk filler. It is less hard than most glues, but will strengthen some.

Fillers should not be added to adhesive sand compounds such as Geotex, which is used to fill gaps in block paving work, as this generally results in failure. Such products aren't cheap and are already thinned as far as they can be. The addition of sand is a common cause of failure.

Suppliers

Builder's merchants
diy sheds
car accessory shops
http://www.cfsnet.co.uk/

Adhesive

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