RCU Forums - View Single Post - gorilla glue vs. epoxy

10-24-2012 | 06:44 AM

#58

heyharv

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From: Pointe-claire, QC, CANADA

RE: gorilla glue vs. epoxy

Hello all.



I have been a composite manufacture for over 30 years. And now I am experimenting in the model industry. Yes there are great off the shelf products that for consumers can work quite well if used for their purposes. However we all know as model builder we have this little part of us that become a chemist or inventor to accomplish our projects. This being said, I always use the KISS system whenever I am working on something (Keep It Sweet and Simple).



Presently I am using Blue SM foam in many of my project. It is easy to work with and it quite strong for the weight ratio. However there are some difficulties when using foams if you need to bond whatever on its surface. The one problem is, the foam surface has an open cell structure that is present when you have sanded the surfaces of the foam. 



This can be problematic when trying to fill these cavities with a bonding product to glue to balsa sheeting. The foam cavities take up a percentage of the bonding product to fill these cavities. Then you need to guess enough for the amount of product you will need to bond the balsa. If you are bonding balsa sheeting remember that the balsa will absorb a large percentage of bonding product. This could become a problem once everything has dried. You could end up with delaminating due to the fact that the 2 surfaces have absorbed the bonding product and you end up a mechanical bonding failure or known as delaminating because there is no product between the 2 surfaces.



My #1 product is epoxy laminating resin a good quality Resin. Why Epoxy resin, it is simple to work with, easily cleaned up, give adequate time to accomplish your projects and has superior strengths in relation to most products available in hardware stores. The other reason I like to use epoxy is that there is practically no odour and it does not melt the foam. When I bond foam to balsa or whatever I never use pure resin. The reason is, when resin is pure it has a tendency of flowing for a long period of time until the resin kicks. This often results in pooling or actually flowing off the surfaces you are trying to bond.



This is what I do to resolve this problem: I will mix baby powder in the resin after it is catalyzed. I will add enough baby powder to thicken the resin to a consistency of hand lotion, thick enough to apply with a brush but that will hold and not run off. You can also use this method by increasing the amount of powder to achieve a bonding paste that you can use to gluing in baffles, very strong and light.



Back in the shop when I was building boat we used Cabosil powder to obtain the same result when bonding balsa core, pvc foam or honeycomb sheeting. This was a very effective way to insure a that all surface were strongly bonded



Due to my history I am more aware of products than the average person because of my trade. This means that when I am in hardware store the clerk tends to think that I am a bit crazy when I ask question related to chemical properties of products. Lololo



All Kidding aside; GG, CA, Aylmer Wood glue and all product you may find are more then likely all good for their intended usage, but as we all experience in our great past time we often try to use these product for what they were not intended to used for .



This is what I do and to date I have had great results.







I use these products:



MIA100 Resin and MIA97 Hardener fro Freeman Supply <cite>www.freemansupply.com

</cite>

<cite>Johnsons Baby powder

</cite>

Hope you enjoy this info.



heyharv

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