Hot Glue Durability

[Mark W Pugh]

I have to attach a part to a frame I built. It needs to be lined up, upside down. I was planning on using hot glue once everything is lined up. It will take a lot of adjustment to get the piece positioned correctly, hence using hot glue once it's in position. So, is hot glue permanent, or should I use another glue?

[Wayne Lomman]

Mark, I take it you are referring to hot glue from an electric gun. It is permanent as in it won't disappear in a hurry, but it is weak and in that sense not permanent. I would suggest lining up the part, marking it and then use a good glue with a long set time to do the final positioning. Cheers

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I have seen hot glue used to the position part and hold it until a stronger glue can set.

[Mark W Pugh]

I have seen hot glue used to the position part and hold it until a stronger glue can set.

Yea, I'll probably go around the edge with epoxy.

[John Blazy]

I do what Andrew said all the time. When you said epoxy the perimeter, assuming hot glue in the hidden, that may work ok, but I would do the reverse.

Epoxy or other high bond glue of you choice for main adhesion, then hot glue in corners and any bare spots not covered by the high adhesion glue.

When I do this "clampless" method, I usually spread the good glue and skip a few spots, then hit those spots with hot melt just before pressing into place.

I have never done this on anything important like furniture or when I built my boat - I mostly do this when building crates or beefed up shipping boxes where I want the strength of polyurethane, but don't want to clamp. I presume that this would work pretty well when glueing solid wood edging to plywood shelves, and situations like that, although I usually clamp with good glue.

A little tip for applying hot melt and getting best adhesion: never squirt a line of the glue - always squirt several small pools. the larger globs of hot melt stay molten much longer, and will adhere twice as well once pressed together. A skinny line of glue will skin over nearly immediately.