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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.
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.