Adhesives, adhesives, adhesives.

[vomitsaw]

Greetings, BenHeck dot commers!
I'm writing with a pretty simple question I suppose, and some of my own personal input. It is, as you might have gathered from the thread title, about various types of adhesives.

For years I've been pretty much exclusively been using Devcon products and have been extremely happy. The "Plastic Welder" and "Steel Plastic" ones in particular are freaking amazing. I used to be able to easily find them at pretty much any Walmart, Home Depot or Lowes. However, I've recently noticed that they've been vanishing from the store shelves and being replaced by these HORRID Loctite products. Their offerings, according to the names and specifications on the packaging, seem at first glance to be a direct replacement or alternative to the Devcon stuff. Thought I'd give them a try. Simple 1-to-1 epoxy systems squeezed from adorable little syringes, just like I'm used to. How could I go wrong?

Loctite "Metal/Concrete"
It seems to cure about 3/4 as good as Devcon's "Plastic Steel" and takes longer to set up. Overall, not completely terrible, but not the best either. It's passable.

Loctite "Plastic Epoxy"
The specs pretty much seemed exactly like Devcon's "Plastic Welder", relatively short working/cure time and super high strength. Not so much. It's extra runny, takes about 3 times longer to set up and doesn't hold nearly as well as I'd hoped. FAIL.

Loctite "Plastix Bonder"
Oh boy! They've intentionally misspelled "plastics" with an X! It MUST be good. ...Xtremely good, even. Figured I might have made a mistake with my earlier purchase of the "Plastic Epoxy" and that THIS stuff was what I was looking for. Heck, it even SMELLED the same as Plastic Welder! Gave it several DAYS to cure, came back and was shocked at what I found.
A dried up, cracked, GUMMY horrible excuse of an adhesive of ANY kind! It felt kinda like dried up hair gel. I seriously would have been better off using Crest, as even TOOTH PASTE dries twice as hard as this shart. EPIC FAIL. Promptly discarded the remainder.


So I guess what I'm asking is, who has used what, and what can you say about them? I need some recommendations. I suppose I could still find the Devcon stuff on the 'net or whatever, but I just find it rather odd that it suddenly went POOF from all my local stores around the same time. It's been months since I've seen them in the wild. Have I set myself up for disappointment? Am I spoiled now? Or do you fine folks have something equally as good or better to recommend?

Let's hear it! Let's talk adhesives. All the juicy details from consistency to dry time, color and strength.

[mikeyg]

This is a great idea. I'm just getting into this stuff. However, have used a bit of adhesive. I did use that stuff you used at the end of the list. It sucks.

[vomitsaw]

This is a great idea. I'm just getting into this stuff. However, have used a bit of adhesive. I did use that stuff you used at the end of the list. It sucks.

Oh thank God I'm not the only one. Seriously, that "Plastix Bonder" crap is so horrible I'm tempted to do a VIDEO REVIEW of it. I pulled the rest of it out of the trash a moment ago. ...I think I have to do this now. Gonna take a while though, as my main work computer's power supply exploded yesterday. I digress.

[nevermind1534]

Did you use the blue or red loctite?

[vomitsaw]

Did you use the blue or red loctite?

Nope. I actually have a story about that though, pro-Loctite. I'll explain.

I used to work for a print shop and ran a Heidelberg GTO-52 litho press. This thing spins, slides, moves and bangs around several hours a day and gets pretty warm. At one point, a certain metal part snapped off and wasn't easy or cheap to replace. We hired a tech to come out and repair it. First, he told me he used Loctite blue to patch it back together. The machine worked okay for another month or so, then that part snapped off again. The same guy came back and crammed some Loctite red in there, and to my surprize, it held like a champ. So I suppose Loctite is really good in certain applications, but my god, so far I'm completely unimpressed with their ability to produce a good general-use epoxy system. I just can't believe they'd put their name on a product as unbelievably crappy as Plastix Bonder. It cured like a crusty gummy worm.

[nevermind1534]

Did you use the blue or red loctite?

Nope. I actually have a story about that though, pro-Loctite. I'll explain.

I used to work for a print shop and ran a Heidelberg GTO-52 litho press. This thing spins, slides, moves and bangs around several hours a day and gets pretty warm. At one point, a certain metal part snapped off and wasn't easy or cheap to replace. We hired a tech to come out and repair it. First, he told me he used Loctite blue to patch it back together. The machine worked okay for another month or so, then that part snapped off again. The same guy came back and crammed some Loctite red in there, and to my surprize, it held like a champ. So I suppose Loctite is really good in certain applications, but my god, so far I'm completely unimpressed with their ability to produce a good general-use epoxy system. I just can't believe they'd put their name on a product as unbelievably crappy as Plastix Bonder. It cured like a crusty gummy worm.

Ok, I'll remember not to buy any of the loctite stuff that is crap. I guess I'll just stick to their red/blue stuff.

[bicostp]

Yeah everybody loves their sticky stuff.

Devcon epoxies are made of win. Win and awesome. Too bad Home Depot, Lowes, and Wally World don't carry them anymore. We find it at True Value, Ace, and a local chain called Benny's. The only problem is you have to mix up a good-size batch no matter how big a job you're doing because if you don't mix enough up it doesn't set right. Their site is still up, so they must still be making the stuff (yay).

Loctite makes good thread locker, but their epoxy isn't as good as Devcon's.

I've found pretty much every Super Glue, from the name-brand stuff to the 5/$1 Wal-Mart tubes, works about the same.

DAP makes the best caulk and sealants. GE's products are a close second.

Elmer's Wood Glue works great for wood (hurr hurr). Gorilla Glue is good too, but it expands a little as it dries.

I used to build plastic models (just the 'Level 2" and "Level 3" AMT kits from the store, nothing fancy), and always used the Testors model cement in the orange tube. Stuff works great for whatever kind of plastic they make model kits out of. I found an old "plastic model cement pen", which works a lot like a paint pen so you get a lot of control over the glue. It says it contains Methyl Isobutyl Ketone and Tutol. They have a non-toxic version of the model cement, but as I remember it the real, dangerous stuff works better.

Mixing plastic shavings in with good old fashioned acetone works well too.

[eagle5953]

Loctite makes good thread locker, but their epoxy isn't as good as Devcon's.

Loctite's got nothing on Black Six when it comes to locking threads...

[Triton]

Loctite's got nothing on Black Six when it comes to locking threads...

As for plastic adhesives i stand by my homemade stuff, a mixture of ground up plastic and acetone. works great!

[Taiben]

Loctite red is for higher heat higher stress things. Its much higher quality than blue. I never use blue because working with cars I always gotta have the red stuff on hand anyway.

[Life of Brian]

Loctite makes good thread locker, but their epoxy isn't as good as Devcon's.

Loctite's got nothing on Black Six when it comes to locking threads...

You sir, have made my day!