Inlay adhesives choices

Jewelry Discussion
1

What adhesives/glues are being used to hold inlay shell in silver
(metal not wood)? I would prefer a 1 part adhesive which could be
used with a syringe with a needle point applicator for getting into
very small cavities. Which adhesives have worked for you?

Thanks…Greg

2 
Which adhesives have worked for you?

Back when I ran an inlay shop, we bought 5 minut epoxy by the case.
I would suggest that there is no better choice, but thats only IMO,
plus much of the inlay business… Major advantages: It has a
reasonable working time, it fills voids to some degree (would be
that we were perfect…)

And it doesn’t require pressure or special treatment to bond. Plus
it is tencious, plus it is reasonably cheap. There was a point where
we put in a chip inlay shop, and for that we used fiberglass resin
with an 8 hour setup time, because of the nature of the work.

A little tip: If you’re doing pictures and the like, you can glue in
your main pieces - the big stuff - the usual way. For tiny stones
like eyes, wash them and put them in place. Then dry the piece
fairly gently on ahotplate, and put a drop of epoxy on top of it.
The heat will make it melt and run down into the seams. Much easier
than tweezering goopy little stones.

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3 
What adhesives/glues are being used to hold inlay shell in silver
(metal not wood)? I would prefer a 1 part adhesive which could be
used with a syringe with a needle point applicator for getting
into very small cavities. Which adhesives have worked for you?

I use CA Special T Cyanoacrylate adhesive (super glue). I like it
because it is thicker than the normal super glues. It also grinds and
polishes beautifully where epoxies tend to get gummy while polishing.
If you are looking for something that you can apply with a syringe I
suggest CA Hotstuff. I use Hotstuff to do a quick stabilize on porous
stones or for filling tiny gaps.

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
Rocky Mountain Wonders
rockymountainwonders.com

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