gluing metal to acrylic- help?

[Jonathan Overlin]

Hello,

I primarily do art pieces with my Trotec 100, but I was commissioned to do 40 acrylic signs for a convenience store chain her in town.
The signs are 12x 24, two layers glued together. I bought D rings with steel tabs attached to them to glue onto the back of the signs to hang from the wall.

I am having trouble getting the metal to stick to the acrylic
I tried super glue, craft glues ("bonds anything to anything"), even JB weld.

2 signs have failed now with the JB weld

any suggestions?

thanks for your help,
Jonathan

[Gary Hair]

I would drill and tap them, not sure you can find adhesive to bond those to materials, especially if JB didn't work.

[Kim Vellore]

If you have E6000 you should try that. I love that glue for its strength and flexibility. It sticks to all kinds of different materials.
Kim

[Jonathan Overlin]

reading some in the signs section of sawmill creek (this place is awesome!), I saw VHB tape mentioned- thoughts on how that might work?

[Joe Pelonio]

If the signs are semi-permanent (not just for a sale) use a small piece of VHB in each corner and then an X of silicone and stick to the wall. The tape holds it while the adhesive sets up. If the wall is smooth, clean, painted drywall just the tape will be fine. If they have to be removable, VHB will not do as well holding the acrylic to the metal tabs, I'd try E6000, or use acrylic cement to glue on some laser-cut french cleats or a tab with hole to hang, with a little square in between so it stands off.

[Glen Monaghan]

I didn't know the what they were called until I read Joe's reply and googled "french cleat", but that was going to be my suggestion. No real value in using the metal tabs and D rings, especially since they are problematic. I'd just go with the cleats because they are easily made from another piece of acrylic or wood, they'd be very easy to attach securely, and a full length cleat would provide a more secure mount than 2 or 4 D rings. Personally, I wouldn't tap/screw into thin acrylic because it's just too easy to crack and mess it up.

-Glen

[Paul Phillips]

We do a lot of custom Aluminum sign fabrication and often have to glue plastics to metal or even metal to metal with no welding and we've had good luck with Lord adhesives, we use the 406\19 two part epoxy in the small 50ml tubes and have had great success with it, it is a heavy duty industrial adhesive though and not cheap, we get ours from our local sign supply.
http://www.lord.com/products-and-solutions/adhesives/product.xml/6
We also have had good results with the 3m VHB (very high bond) tapes, they use this stuff for holding glass panels onto the ceiling of the Chicago Ohare airport so it shouldn't be to bad.
Paul

[Doug Novic]

I had to set a lot of small aluminum pieces onto glass. Used E6000 and it worked well. No failures and it has been over a year. They are hanging vertically as well. I also use VHB where transparency is not an issue. VHB is almost better than duct tape ;)

[john passek]

Jonathan - Did you roughen up the back of the Acrylic with sand paper before gluing, this helps in bonding.
I have used a glue called No More Nails, it will bond just about anything, it also comes in tape form aswell.
What is the brand name of the E6000, i don't think I have ever seen it in my hunt for good glue.
Hope you find something that works.

[Joe Pelonio]

E6000 is available at Tap Plastics, and at jewelry/bead supply and some craft stores. Ecletctic Products is the manufacturer.