Glue question (Walnut/Cherry/Maple to HDPE)

[Dave Rathert]

I’m thinking about making some putters as Christmas gifts for some friends of mine. I’ve been using the prototype pictured below all year and it’s passed my tests. However, in the next series of putters I’d like to make the “sweet spot” insert out of High Density Polyethylene (white cutting board material) as opposed to the hard maple in the one pictured. I’m not worried about shaping the HDPE but I was wondering if you all had any recommendations for glue. TB II or III? CA? Epoxy? Others? Thanks
-D

[Marty Paulus]

HDPE is tough to glue to anything. Need proof? What material is the glue bottle made from? Most likely PE.

[Chris Padilla]

Cool putter, Dave! Have you considered a harder wood? Mesquite is pretty hard...maybe Ipe.

If you have issues gluing HDPE, maybe you can mechanically trap it/glue it?

I'd definately experiment but one thing I'm fairly certain of: epoxy can pretty much glue anything to anything. :)

[Brian Tymchak]

I'm with Marty. I doubt any of the traditional wood glues are going to work. Maybe contact cement or Liquid Nails? Maybe a 2-sided adhesive tape of some sort? although that might serve a bit to deaden the feel of the ball impact.

Sounds like more prototypes and field testing is in order. ;)

[Dave Rathert]

Thanks Chris. After reading Marty’s reply I immediately started thing about a way to “trap” the insert. Right now I’m thinking about going with a dovetail style insert. In other words, I’ll cut my “dado” with a dovetail bit and bevel the insert to match. Then I can slide the insert in (and glue of course) before I laminate the club sole and top. Thanks for getting me thinking guys. This might work out even better than the original plan.
Yeah Brian, more testing is in order. “Hey honey, I’m gonna need to spend Saturday in the shop and Sunday… ahem… Field Testing for 18 holes or so.” hehehehe
-D

[John Coloccia]

There's a glue called Pro Poly that will glue HDPE to many materials. Unfortunately, wood is not one of them as far as I know, but you can glue to aluminum with ProPoly, and then glue the aluminum to the wood with epoxy. Having a bit of metal back there may actually improve the feel, too.

Nice putter, by the way.

[Roger Newby]

As Marty said, any glue you buy comes in a PE container 'cause nothing sticks to it long term. If you abrade the plastic to give it some "tooth" is does give a mechanical bond, but knocking around a golf ball is going to mess with that. You also have an expansion factor between the plastic and the substrate. Hate to pee in your Cheerios, but you've got to keep the customer happy.

[Prashun Patel]

Try 2-part epoxy. Mechanical trapping IMHO isn't optimal here, because you will get some microscopic and unpredictable movement over time, which is probably not desirable in a putter.