Testing for the ultimate adhesive

[tmickley]

This shows how the initial 'tap' tests are going to be done. 3 sizes of hammers, 3 taps on the edge of the wood block to give a sudden shearing force. Pictured is the smallest hammer. They all made it past this one. The middle hammer failed the contact cement. It popped right off on the first whack. All of them made it past the big hammer.


If you look at the edges of the wood, you can see where the wood has been crushed some from the tapping. They all took quite a thumping. I was surprise none failed at this point. Then I stuck the whole mess in the freezer for a couple hours and retrieved it. While still cold, I went straight to the big hammer and all passed except the Devcon 2 ton popped off easily. The epoxy stuck to the wood - as I suspect they all will - but was fairly glazed on the metal side. Inadequite surface prep? Could be but all the others held on.

I've already started the glue up for round two. Chuck Bybee of Alpha Knife Supply kicked in several pieces of metal and blocks of wood along with a couple of adhesives. Blatent plug -Buy stuff from Chuck, here's here and active on the forums.


I ran out of clamps!
I'm going to spend the next several days glueing up several more adhesives and then allow them to cure for a few days. Some of this stuff likes to have 3 to 4 days to fully set up.

Failures so far:
my wifes hot glue gun didn't even make it out of the gate
tanner bond contact cement - this stuff is awesome for leather though
Devcon 2 Ton - probably one of the most popular epoxies out there. I'm anxious to retest this one.

surprises so far:
those darn super glues held up past the big tap tests. I figured they'd pop right off.

coming:
several more cycles of heat and freeze. heat to 150 to 175 in my heat treat oven, then to the freezer for a few cycles. I'll tap those in a day or two. Then to the dishwasher for a few cycles. Tap again. Then I'm going to get serious if any are left. :evil

Helpful suggestions:
If you helpfully suggest to 'try this stuff xxxx, it really works well, it's what I use, all that other stuff sucks', send me some right away and I'll test it. I've sunk enough money into this thing so far.

Here's another helpful suggestion I expect to get, 'Hey, your methodology really sucks, you don't know what you are doing dumb ass!' all I can say is you are right.


Round 2 will be different, just not sure how yet.

One last thing, I'll be documenting this on my web site also with a few more pictures and maybe some different text than what ends up here. You can follow along there if you like by having a look Mickley Knives In Progress Area