Plastic to metal adhesive

Jewelry Discussion
1

I have been working on some pieces that involve sterling silver
and/or 14k gold and some plastic components. I had been using Epoxy
330 but recently discovered that it is not a good adhesive as the
plastic pieces easily pop off.

Any suggestions for a better adhesive to connect plastic to metal?

Thanks;
Carolyn Tillie

2

E6000. Tap Plastics has it in black, white or clear at tapplastics
dot com.

Setup your pieces, don’t move them once in place, don’t breathe on
them for 24 hours and you’ll have a very strong bond. Best if in a
heated spot. Outside in summer under the sun or inside in winter next
to the wood stove. For those with central heat, find a hot spot.

Nancy Goodenough

3

Rivits.

Elaine

4 
Rivits.

I’m not sure this is helpful to the questioner, so I will say that
as someone else mentioned, E6000 is good for dissimilar materials,
and Goop is good for plastics.

But the mention of rivets in the context of plastic reminded me of
something that some may find interesting, and that I would never
have thought of. Rivets can be made of the cord for a weed-whacker,
using a hot knife or a soldering iron to flatten the cord into a
rivet. This can be a very cool way to attach found objects to metal
and the like. It comes in various colors and thicknesses (though
generally very large quantities) and anyone you see using one of
these machines is pretty certain to let you have a few inches to
play with.

Tip of the hat to Tara Macintosh.

Noel

5

Try one of the polyurethane adhesives like Gorilla Glue - will stick
most anything to anything… One of the problems you have with
plastic to metal is that metal is hard and expands just a bit as it
gets warmer, plastic is soft and expands a lot as it heats up ( or
the reverse as it cools down ). So, the plastic either buckles
slightly or gets stretched and a ‘rigid’ adhesive bond like epoxy
etc. just lets go. The polyurethane adhesives react a resin with
moisture to form a very tough foam which remains slightly flexible
and so will allow the differential movement. Try a bit on a piece of
scrap plastic first though to make sure that the plastic won’t
dissolve away in the resin…

Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK

6

Thanks to all for the replies - I’ve ordered some E-6000.

Rivets wouldn’t exactly work as I am attaching miniature plastic bits
to silver and gold which can be seen on my current gastronomy series
here: http://www.carolyntillie.com/gastronomy.html

Cheers!
carolyn