Adhesive question

[Peter Tremblay]

Hello,

I'm wondering what you would recommend as the strongest adhesive to attach a stainless steel plate to walnut?

I've been going back and fourth between CA or epoxy.

I have not had too much luck with epoxy lately and I don't know if it is user error or if my epoxy resin is just getting old (much of it has crystalized in the bottle.) I have System Three epoxy.

Thanks

[DonJuvet]

Go get a new tube of epoxy at the hardware store.
Unless you need a large quantity.

Make sure the steel is clean of oils.
If the wood is already finished, Scuff and scratch it so the epoxy can stick to the wood.

[Peter Tremblay]

DonJuvet said:

---

Go get a new tube of epoxy at the hardware store.
Unless you need a large quantity.

Make sure the steel is clean of oils.
If the wood is already finished, Scuff and scratch it so the epoxy can stick to the wood.

---

Thanks,

I think I'll need to switch to buying small tubes of adhesive rather than buying in bulk.

Other than Titebond III I just don't go through a lot of adhesives and when I get around to using them (a few years later) they have 'gone bad'

I recently did the same thing with CA glue. Now I just buy and use the little toothpaste looking tubes as single use glue because I just don't use it fast enough to avoid it going bad.

The wood is not finished.

Thanks again

[LongLook]

I recently used Gorilla glue to attach brass to walnut and it worked fine. I wouldn't know if it was the strongest available but I've had no problems with detaching.

[Wild Turkey]

I would consider silicone instead of epoxy.

Epoxy is brittle and if the stainless expands due to temp changes it could break the bond.

This to that website suggests contact glue for large areas

[Admiral]

I'm thinking silicone as well, or that "rubber" glue stuff. Expansion and contraction of two very dissimilar materials is something that doesn't play very well with epoxy bonds and eventually the bond would fail, but then again this may take years and then you just re-bond it. Not to say that silicone might not eventually fail as well. For these sort of marriages, some type of mechanical fastener might be better, maybe some small molding on the edges with a rabbet to hold it in? Or drill small holes for countersunk brads (in both cases with silicone as a backup). This is dependent on the design and purpose of the plate, I'm thinking of a plaque.

[Cooler]

Sometimes adhesives are stronger than mechanical fasteners and sometimes the opposite is true. Sometimes both are required.

You are not giving much information. How much weight is this going to hold? Shear? Tension?

What is the square inches of bonding area?

Masterbond makes epoxy adhesives for the aerospace industry, automotive industry and for retail sales. I would write to them asking what to use.

http://www.masterbond.com/products/epoxy-systems

"Epoxy" covers a lot of ground. There are epoxies that are "toughened" to resist flexing and vibrations. There are epoxies that can withstand high heat. There are epoxies that remain flexible.

Masterbond lists over 200 variants of epoxy. So the retailer's "one size fits all" does not really apply.

Of course some (or most) of the special epoxies probably are not available in small quantities so the actual number available to you may be much smaller.

[Rick L]

You didn't read the manual on your epoxy. Put it in a hot water bath and it will come. Epoxy doesn't go bad. Epoxy would be your choice. Have glued much stainless with epoxy. No problems. The other answers are just speculating with no actual experience.

[PhilJoines]

Used to be in aerospace. We always used contact cement.

[Alan S]

I agree with warming the epoxy until the crystallized part dissolves, and mixing. The bond to epoxy should be much stronger than that to silicone. Epoxy is not as flexible as silicone, so if the wood moves a lot, silicone could wind up better in some circumstance.

When you use it, make sure to get the resin: hardener mixing ratio correct, as it's weaker at best if that's off: far enough off and it will never harden. (Think of resin as having mortises and hardener tenons. If there are too few of one or the other, your structure will not be strong.)

Cleaning the surface of both materials is also very important to help any glue stick. Freshly sanded and clean surfaces are good.

I have gone through over 6 gallons of System Three epoxy with no failures, including some that had crystallized and was warmed to redissolve. It's good stuff.