Wood on stainless steel 1

[vicbee]

I am looking to bond 1-1/4" diameter hard wood half spheres onto 20" x 1-1/4" x 1/8" thick stainless steel 304 bars. The ss bars are expected to flex by 2-3 mm at most under pressure. The wood only serves a decorative purpose although it will probably also help rigidify the bar, which is fine. I don't expect the wood to be affected by the ss flex.
I assumed a 2 parts epoxy structural adhesive would be what I need, but the fabricator I am considering working with says with time (10-20 years) the adhesive bond will fail. He suggests a mechanical anchoring of the wood to the stainless steel.
The added welds, time, etc.. will affect the cost of this project to some degree so I'd like to hear from adhesive specialists what they think... Thanks.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Epoxies to degrade over time and they do not have much flexibility, in fact they are fairly brittle.
Your application is better suited to a structural acrylic adhesive such as Glue-direct's 'Toughbonder'. It will bond dissimilar substrates such as wood and metals and has a degree of flexibility as well as standing up to the elements.

regards, John Roberts

 

[Munduume]

John, I have used epoxy to bond steel and polypropylene composite material before. The material is subjected to concentrated high impacts and the steel plates tend to debond. Do you think Toughbonder would give me better results?

 

[aspearin1]

The acrylic adhesive are pretty robust, one such adhesive, (Adcote 89R3) is used to bond plastic liners in tanker trucks. If in the presence of a strong solvent, I'd suggest an epoxy. For general purpose, robust bonding, go with the Acrylic.

 

[Glueguy]

I would suggest a SMP (Silyl Modified Polymer). It's adhesion competes w/ a methacrylate for structural strength. It also has incredible flexability. It can stretch up to 200% of the bond line and still maintain a structural bond. It is impervious to weather and comes in an easy to use caulk tube. It has incredible green strength and is paintable.

John Schrock

http://www.glubie.com