adhesive for bonding wood to aluminum top plates?

[Jim R.]

Subject says it all -- I'm looking for a recomendation for an adhesive that can bond wood or some other porous substrate to an aluminum BH top plate. Obviously it has to withstand the heat.

Howie are you out there?

I'm figuring some type of epoxy but one that will spread well and be long lasting under the hot conditions -- maybe one of the gel epoxies?

Alternatively, how would something like the high temp grill paint work if used like rubber cement -- apply to both pieces and wait for the paint to become tacky and then roll or press the pieces together?

I figure somebody herre has done this and since I'm actually using copper, it gets expensive to experiment :-).

Thanks,

Jim

[JamieMcC]

Gorilla Glue ie (polyurethane glue) will work well for this it is reasonably inexpensive and easy to find.

I used it to glue my carbon fibre top to the alloy plate with it when and when curing the clear coat I used a infer-red lamp on it 90 degree Celsius the different expansion rate of the alloy to the carbon was enough to bow my Cracks top plate like a banana but all remained stuck solid. I use it for gluing all kinds of stuff and it continues to amaze me at what it will adhere to.

The only thing I would advise caution on is if you intend to use a very thin veneer many of the liquid glues will penetrate through the wood to the top surface making it nigh on impossible to make the veneer take a stain which can give a uneven patchy finish.

You will need to sand and degrease the alloy plate for a good bond and a thin coating to each surface stick together and place something heavy on top.

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2Fa%2Fa7%2FGorilla_glue.png&hash=342390cd8d5c534ef16fdb176808045a42e9c3e7)

[Doc B.]

Yup it will make a very permanent bond. You will never get the panel out of the base without breaking the wood. It will also expand and blow out of the seam if you use too much. The glue will stain your skin.  Keep those things in mind and it's a really great adhesive.

[Jim R.]

Thanks gentleman,

Yes,sounds good. I have had expansion problems with this this stuff in the past but maybe I just used too much.

Dan, no way am I doing this with the panel in the frame :-)

Thanks again,

Jim

[Grainger49]

I like my all time favorite Silicon Seal, aka RTV.  It is elastic and might give some vibration control.  The original is very high temperature.  There are also versions in blue for cylinder head gasket material.  That is pretty hot.

[howardnair]

yes jim i am--like grainger says silicon or you can use pl premium glue--i would use the silicon- gorilla glue is messy-the silicon will work to a certain point but i would not trust it if you turn the amp upside down-if your copper plate is thick enough you can drill some shallow  holes  and thread them for small "L" bracket-the other option may be to use threaded inserts in the wood and use a small copper screw or bolt-which is  what i would suggest they won't fail and if well placed can be part of the design-remember to spray them with lacquer or a clear sealer of some sort -otherwise they will turn dark or discolor

[Jim R.]

Thanks Grainger and Howie -- lots of approaches to consider so thanks for the additional ideas.

We're supposed to have a nice, warm weekend and into next week, so I'll probably try something in the next few days.

- Jim

[STURMJ]

I have used standard bathroom calking to "glue" the plates to all of my BH gear, ( I'm nor sure if this is exactly what you are trying to do, or are you going to put other pieces od wood on the top?)  I can say that the hold is very good, but not so good that you can't foce the plate off without damaging anything.

[Jim R.]

Thanks, but I'm trying to bond a porous material to the plate itself, not the plate to the base.
I'm not sure the caulk will stand the temperature of the plate, but as I've made up my mind to use gorilla glue the point is moot.

-- Jim

I have used standard bathroom calking to "glue" the plates to all of my BH gear, ( I'm nor sure if this is exactly what you are trying to do, or are you going to put other pieces od wood on the top?)  I can say that the hold is very good, but not so good that you can't foce the plate off without damaging anything.

[JamieMcC]

The Gorilla glue gets messy if you use to much the best way to apply it to the top would be to pour a little on and spread it out with a old credit card you only need a very fine film on both surfaces. If you used the credit card to scrape any movable excess off you will have about the right amount do the same to both surfaces and put masking tape over any surface you don't want to get glue on. This helps later finishing later on.

What ever you do never ever use a silicon based caulk/glue on anything that's going to have any kind of finish coating even the slightest trace of it from a fingerprint etc will cause paint finishes to wrinkle or fish eye.

[Jim R.]

I have used gorilla glue plenty of t8imes in the past and my favorite method for spreadin g it over an area is to use a large diameter dowel with wax paper on it for something like this -- very even coverage, and then when the glue is spread, the dowel makes a fine tool for making the wrinkles go away (once you remove the wax paper.). And no worries, I really dislike working with RTV -- saw way too much of that stuff in my engineering jobs in the 80s and also saw it fail plenty of times.

-- Jim