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Liquid Metal - Adhesive?

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 10:24 am
by dunketh
Saw this in Halfords the other day..

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=22533#

First reaction was one of dread - can you just imagine the amount of chav corsas and whatnot that are going to be entirely held together by this stuff. :o

But, is there really any use for it? Perhaps none structural?
Anyone have an opinion on it or perhaps used it?

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 10:44 am
by Rob_Jennings
Its difficult to say,

If it creates a chemical bond then if done right it could be better then a weld.

Ultimately a glue can provide a better means of joining two surfaces than a mechanical process, and welding is an art that can be difficult to get right. The real problem is how you inspect and test such a joint.

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 11:42 am
by JimK
Plenty of aircraft and a few cars are glued together (Elise springs to mind) so glueing is not a soft option, but I take your point that young Wayne in his Corsa could do all sorts of damage.

There's no reason that sort of thing shouldn't be structural (disclaimer: I'm not in that line) but I don't know about that particular product.

One use I can think of is when the heat of welding would distort the items being joined. I'm using something similar to build a dash panel.

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 12:03 pm
by dean36014
I've used the JB Weld stuff, and mightly impressed with it as well. I had a LDV van which needed new mirrors due to vandalisment. Unfortunately the ones I bought of an auction site had long arms, not short. So I cut 3 inches out the middle of them, and used the adhesive to bond/weld the alloy arms back together. They survived till I sold it, and they got clouted a few times as well without cracking. I repaired the mirror on the misuse's citroen as well which got kicked off.