SpudFiles

to this day i have yet to find an adhesive that works on polyethylene and polypropylene. epoxy doesn't stick at all, nor does CA clue. just about everything in the store says or "does not bond polyethylene or polypropylene" does anybody know of any adhesives that work on these plastics?

thanks,

meatballs

I am sorry to inform you that there is currently no glue on the face of the earth to bond Polyethylene. It is either bolted together or welded.
Maybe you could invent a glue, that would make you a bizillionaire

Edit: Typo

Novacastrian wrote: Maybe you could invent a glue, that would make you a bizillionaire

Maybe some sort of solvent cement....

benstern wrote:

Novacastrian wrote: Maybe you could invent a glue, that would make you a bizillionaire

Maybe some sort of solvent cement....

To my knowledge there is no solvent capable of "solving" this problem.
The only other way of joining two pieces of P.E. is to heat the mating surfaces and press them together.
I don't think acids even attack the stuff as it is used to line vessels that carry sulphuric acid, maybe even nitric.
One could use contact adhesive but that won't stop it separating if lateral force is applied. If i were to try and glue P.E. to something i would first pepper the mating surfaces with angled holes (abrading to the extreme) and use some kind of "softer" epoxy, if there is such a thing.

What about rubber cement?

Novacastrian wrote:

benstern wrote:

Novacastrian wrote: Maybe you could invent a glue, that would make you a bizillionaire

Maybe some sort of solvent cement....

One could use contact adhesive but that won't stop it separating if lateral force is applied.

To the best of my knowledge rubber cement IS a contact adhesive. :argue:

There is no glue and will never be any glue that can make any respectable bond to either of those plastics.

To my knowledge there is no solvent capable of "solving" this problem.
The only other way of joining two pieces of P.E. is to heat the mating surfaces and press them together.

surely that would only work on LDPE which isn't good for spudding since it is less strong than HDPE

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

To my knowledge there is no solvent capable of "solving" this problem.
The only other way of joining two pieces of P.E. is to heat the mating surfaces and press them together.

surely that would only work on LDPE which isn't good for spudding since it is less strong than HDPE

You are half right, any two similar (the same) P.E. products can be welded or bonded via heat, you just can't bond or weld two dissimilar P.E.'s.

So we are now stuck with heat fusing them together.

Like most have said, you're screwed if you need a glue. I'd recommend using threaded rods to make the joint if at all possible. What application would this be used in?

http://www.stealth316.com/misc/dp8005.pdf

I've not tried this so I can't say one way or other about it .

so for what its worth

edited to add>>

Scotch-Weld DP8005 Structural Plastic Adhesive is a two part acrylic-based adhesive
(10:1 ratio by volume) that can bond many low surface energy plastics, including many
grades of Polypropylene and Polyethylene, without special surface preparation.
Scotch-Weld DP-8005 Structural Plastic Adhesive can replace screws, rivets, plastic
welding, and two step processes which include chemical etchants, priming or surface
treatments in many applications.

Not a bad find at all Cdheller, that seems to be what meatballs was after. It would be good to test anyway.

cdheller wrote:http://www.stealth316.com/misc/dp8005.pdf

I've not tried this so I can't say one way or other about it .

so for what its worth

edited to add>>

Scotch-Weld DP8005 Structural Plastic Adhesive is a two part acrylic-based adhesive
(10:1 ratio by volume) that can bond many low surface energy plastics, including many
grades of Polypropylene and Polyethylene, without special surface preparation.
Scotch-Weld DP-8005 Structural Plastic Adhesive can replace screws, rivets, plastic
welding, and two step processes which include chemical etchants, priming or surface
treatments in many applications.

Nice find