Adhesive

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

see Wood glues

Metal

• Epoxy
• Polyurethane
• Contact

Plastics - PVC, ABS

• Solvent glues
• Solvents
• Household gloss paint will glue pvc

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.

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

2 part epoxy ("Araldite" etc)

• Tough
• chemical resistant.
• 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.
• Car accessory shops sell tougher epoxies than Araldite.
• Available as liquid resin tubes, putty sticks, or in standard building cartridges with automatic mixing nozzles.
• The quick setting types are much weaker
• Heating the mix (in tinfoil on a low ring) until runny makes it set very much faster. Don't overheat it.
• vulnerable to uv

See also:

• Discussion of epoxy adhesives on uk.d-i-y

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 the strongest most 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 flexible acrylic formula

Paint sticks to caulk

Solvent based building adhesives

(Gripfill etc)

? type

"Sticks like SH!T" etc

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 plus fillers

See also:

• Discussion of epoxy and polyester adhesives on uk.d-i-y

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

• Cement based most popular

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.

Adhesive Selector Grid

Which adhesive is best for any 2 given materials?

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

http://www.thistothat.com/

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

Moulding tools

Sometimes adhesives need to be moulded.

Fugee & Fugenboy

PTFE

Polythene

Fillers

Fillers are used in gapfilling adhesives to reduce cost. They do affect the adhesive properties to some extent.

Sand can be mixed into resin fillers to reduce cost, but the resulting mix is not sandable, so should only be used to fill below the final surface level.

Adding fillers does reduce final strength in most cases. For many filling tasks this is not a problem, but fillers should not be added to resin based fillers for blockwork, as this generally results in failure.

Suppliers

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

See Also

PVA

Book: 'On boat construction' by Gougeon Brothers is an expert guide to use of epoxies.

BAL Adhesives tables

Glue Terminology

Wiki Contents

Wiki Subject Categories