Best Adhesive for Small Plastic Parts: Cyanoacrylate Alternatives & Precise Gluing Techniques

Hello
I am looking for an adhesive for gluing, for example, small plastic parts, usually mechanical
Cyanoacrylate can't handle it
Has anyone come across anything specific?

Exactly, I was about to say cyanoacrylate.
Why is he unable to do so?
Maybe because the surface is not thoroughly cleaned and degreased.
Cyanoacrylate is very good as the parts fit together - no cavities
but not random, only a good company.
Try other cyanoacrylate adhesives - loctite et al.
Different cyanoacrylate adhesives have very different properties, they are universal, they are also specialized.
I basically glue everything when it flies with resin - of course, I clean it, etc.
Only when there is something that can be difficult to glue, e.g. large forces, a small contact area, then I wonder what to glue - e.g. some specialized glue.

I also usually use an epoxy but sometimes I have to glue something precise and small.
Cyanoacrylate in large amounts is too flexible, I need something harder.

Dichloroethane is useful for gluing plastic parts together. It simply dissolves the plastic and allows you to make strong, almost invisible contacts.

What kind of plastic? Because it is important. Dichloroethane or dichloromethane (even better) dissolve a large group of plastics (especially PS, ABS) well, but they are toxic and I would rather not recommend them. The same is true of chloroform (recommended for gluing PMMA (plexiglass). From the available items, I would recommend a nitro solvent and a solution of a given plastic in it. It can also be toluene, xylene, ethyl acetate.

Toluene is no less toxic than dichloroethane, and chloroform can make you lose your consciousness at all. Of course, it should work in a well-ventilated place. I personally use dichloroethane, because it's easiest to buy it from us on the radio.

Toluene is definitely less toxic, in general all halogenated solvents are more toxic. I wouldn't demonize of course. You can buy toluene from us without any problems, with halogenated solvents will be worse.

Thanks colleagues for help. I will try as you wrote
greetings

I will give you a hint.
Recently I tested such a Pattex and was pleasantly surprised: http://www.pattex.pl/content/view/283/192/

It is a cyanoacrylate with an activator. You can stick with it what an ordinary "droplet" cannot do. First, you lubricate the surface with an activator, wait a minute, apply the glue and press.
Glues from plastics: vinyl, plexiglass, nylon, PVC-U, ABS, PE, PP, etc.
The quality of the connection is really very good and the price of the glue is not high. The activator is added in a convenient form in the form of a pen. Available in overwhelming and other teskach as well as in chemical stores.

Colleagues I am looking for some way to glue the rack from the printer.

I need help to determine together with you what kind of material it is and what glue to use ???

Plastic breakthrough - the crack is dull and rough

It is a gear that works - it transfers the drive between two rollers in the printer, so the teeth are subjected to a ring force (stretching) the plastic ring with the teeth.

In addition, there is a metal bearing inside which presses against the plastic ring, which increases the gap to 2-3mm. Even squeezing the plastic ring (rack) on the bearing will not ensure the gap will disappear (although originally there was no gap). If I remove the bearing, of course the ring gives up and after squeezing there is no gap.


Initially, I planned to glue the ring without the bearing with epoxy glue, eg DISTAL. Later, after the adhesive has bonded, grind the ring with the teeth from the inside to freely insert the bearing previously smeared with glue from the outside so that it sticks to the plastic ring with teeth.

However, it seems to me that DISTAL glue is average and I would prefer to use something better because it is known that the first glue is the best and I would not like to glue the same several times.

bart241 wrote:

However, it seems to me that DISTAL glue is average and I would prefer to use something better because it is known that the first glue is the best and I would not like to glue the same several times.

Looks like the ring is nylon. These fluff testify to this. Anyway, the strong plastic gears are only nylon.
The only way is what I mentioned above, i.e. cyanoacrylate with activator for difficult plastics. You can also try a two-component one. See something from the Technicol offer.
However, do not expect any miracles. Nylon is a difficult material to glue.
Greetings!

Hello!
I recently glued Teflon to steel and looked for something suitable for a long time - I found something like this: http://chester.com.pl/produkty/kleje-cyjanoakrylowe/
I called and the advisor precisely specified what I need.
First, the CH-2 activator and then the glue - holds it perfectly and all previous attempts with other adhesives failed.
They generally have interesting products, e.g. I use their metal adhesives and I am impressed.
Greetings.

out of curiosity, what is the approximate cost of such a CH-2 + glue set?
(since you can buy such a rack, I will rather not stick it, although sometimes such a "better glue" for home use would be useful)

As for the above-mentioned companies, I agree.

For several years, I could not stick the list to the door of the car. Glues, tapes did not work on such extremes of temperature and conditions in winter -20C, summer + 40C or more (black strip) and additionally rain.

In the end, I went to a specialized store and the seller recommended me SIKI polyurethane glue in a cartridge (310 ml, I think) for PLN 15. The trash stuck to everything (super grip) like sticky and dirty to the maximum, but it stuck the plastic to the body and holds to this day. Normally rubber like an inner tube. I used up maybe 30ml. and the rest I secured so that it does not dry out, but it turns out that it is hard to store if it opens once and practically every time I have a problem to squeeze something out of it because it dries quite a lot after being taped with a tape, it has a maximum. But SIKA really did it. It is a pity that there are no smaller capacities because practically after opening, the remaining glue can be thrown away.

bart241 wrote:

It is a pity that there are no smaller capacities because practically after opening, the remaining glue can be thrown away.

Pack in an airtight bag and refrigerate. This will significantly extend the durability.
greetings

bart241 - as I remember it's CH-2 something around 50 and the glue is not very expensive either.
Only one problem - storage - the activator left in the sealed container disappeared (evaporated) after a year, leaving only a whitish residue.

The topic is archival, but I will write for posterity how to glue polyolefins that are by definition difficult to glue efficiently and with good results in home and workshop conditions. Anyway, even ABS with modifiers and other plastics of unknown composition.
First of all, you have to increase the wettability, i.e. activate the surface 2-3 times (up to 70mN / m). This requires highly active oxygen to break the hydrogen bonds with carbon and achieve brilliant surface wettability. The first way is propane with oxygen (if you have cylinders at hand) and quickly dabbing with a strongly reducing flame several times over the glued element. Works, but not very aesthetically pleasing.
The second method, which I use for PP, PE, PET, Mylar with trafo etc .. is to buy for a few pennies for ali (PLN 40-50) such a charge for the ozonator:

The next step is to connect, without air (for a moment) and at a distance of 1 mm from the surface of the plate, on which there are corona discharges of the glued material. The time of 2 minutes will be great, it can be done in 4 steps of 30 seconds. with intervals for cooling down (although in such a single chord nothing will happen).
Now we have broken it highly active oxygen hydrogen bonds (probably 1.5eV) so we have total wettability as in the picture on the left:

It's time to get down to the glue
personally for "plastics" - I advise to use methacrylic adhesives because the joint will be stronger in the joint than the native material, by melting it. These adhesives are expensive, but you can buy very good adhesives for pennies ali.
Look like this:

The brand is a kafuter (there are promos - 2 sets of 70g for PLN 29), this is it very strong two-component methacrylic adhesive, much stronger than epoxy adhesive, especially for plastics.
Of course, after the corona discharge treatment, we can glue with MX hybrid adhesives and others if we want to leave the possibility of breaking the joint in the future.
We never sand the surface before gluing only before "ozonation" we clean with IPA or acetone and we can pass sandpaper before "ozonation" (although it is not necessary!)

If we sand down before gluing, we will spoil the effect of the oxidized micro-layer and we will get something like the left side: (the right side is perfect!)
Well, that's what I wanted to add. It's hard for me to compare the shear strength with a chemical activator, but foreign forums report that the methods of activation with corona discharge or low-pressure plasma are the best and most durable. In practice, it works great for me

Thanks wesmar for the lecture.

I just bought this KAFUTER glue because my proven DISTAL is no longer on the market, and it is possible that it will not even be because the manufacturer is going to collapse from what I have learned. Unfortunately, I do not want to sell the glue license to anyone, so it is possible that we will not see the immortal DISTAL.

Generally, I am looking for an alternative to DISTAL because there is always something at home to stick together in the current world of trash and cost optimization. I hope that this CAFUTER will do well because I paid about PLN 25 for a 70ml pack, comparable to DISTAL, so it is a good alternative.

@ bart241 what are your impressions after using this glue? I am also looking for an alternative to the Distal.

For now, I am waiting for the shipment but I am full of hope after the lecture of my friend Wesmar because you can see that he knows it.

I will dig up the topic a bit, but I will only suggest from experience that priming polyolefins (PE and PP) with Loctite 770 gives very good results.
Like attacking with fire or electric shock, it increases the wettability of the surface, but it is simple and cheap to use. Contrary to what they say in the inept translation on the packaging - it is not a CA glue activator.

After using the 770 for gluing, I use CA modeling adhesives (joker, etc.), which cost pennies and are very good and come in different densities.

My refrigerator drawer is broken. What to glue it with? What is this material?
How to do it right so that it doesn't fall apart in a moment?





Added after 5 [minutes]:

ordos18 wrote:

@ bart241 what are your impressions after using this glue? I am also looking for an alternative to the Distal.

Hmm ... I only glued KAFUTER with this glue and to be honest it didn't suit me somehow.

In terms of use, it reminds me of the colorless POXIPOL 10 minutes glue I used to have. It smells very bad, it sets quickly, so you need to be in a hurry. It hardens after 2 minutes. After 24 hours, the strength of the Kafuter glue is comparable to that of the office glue. But in fact, I did not prepare the surface in any way, and I glued some plastic.

If I had to compare it to the Distal, it would be about 5% of its durability. Although now I do not remember what exactly I wanted to glue and what plastic it was.
The only plus is the size of the package and the price of this glue.