So the YouTube talking heads all talk about gluing together two parts. I’ve performed my own testing between, epoxy, plastic glue, model cement and the overall winning performer was SCIGRIP 10315 16 Acrylic Plastic Cement. But that only works for chemically welding plastic on plastic.
My use-case is to bond Molybdenum Rare Earth Magnets to plastic. Normally I would embed two magnets in the filament while it was printing but this case does not lend itself to that. My experience with JB Weld is that it is 90% hype and has a limited use-case. Only certain applications work and one needs to encase the objects being bonded in the material. Then it works - somewhat. But in the use of bonding two smooth surfaces together, it was not up to what it advertised.
Here is my simple test case.
- Take two objects and glue them together.
- Then after they have fully cured, I then take them in a vise and try to pry the other object off to see what kind of strength it has.
In the world of plastics, a successful test by my definition would be that the plastic material surrounding the bond would fail before the bond. This is no different than tests conducted with metal welding. You know you have a perfect bond when the bond strength exceeds to material around it.
In my experience with JB Weld, the only use-case I found was to first rivet or fasten together two metal components, then smother the joints with a generous amount of JB Weld to ensure that the joint movement is minimized. However, what it does not do in my experience, is hold two pieces of material together with a strong bond. I’ve had better luck with fiberglass resins than JB Weld.
Thoughts anyone? Perhaps there is a method to use JB Weld than I am missing but more importantly, has anyone tried this with PLA?