Plastic laminate repair/fix question....

Re: Plastic laminate repair/fix question....

Don Stephan

Double stick tape likely would leave a gap. Perhaps clean well any residual contact adhesive from both surfaces with lacquer thinner. It's been a long time but I think the contact adhesive I used called for a special nubby roller applicator and a wait until the adhesive was the right amount of tacky before putting the two together. (Is "right amount of tacky" tech talk or what?)

Re: Plastic laminate repair/fix question....

TomD

As with Don, my guess would be the removed piece still had glue residue, and that the bond to glue isn't good. As most contact glues have a window for application, that would tend to suggest that the glue doesn't bond full strength to itself, even a short while after exposure. Ideally try to get all the glue off, down to a finish sanding, as even a solvent leaves a residue.

Re: Plastic laminate repair/fix question....

Don Evans

Contact cement is the only way to go. I don't understand why yours failed unless you didn't reach the correct wait time.

I would get new cement and try it again but you have to wait to stick the two pieced together until the cement is ready. My experience with it required being sure you have it straight before touching the pieces together because once they touch there is no moving it.

E6000 will stick it up there but it is a glue that never hardens and isn't made for the job. It is made for sticking to different materials together where expandsion and contract of different material could cause a failure. It is not good for that application.

Double stick tape will eventually dry out and fail, if it lasted more than a month in that application I would be surprised.

Contact cement is the way to go.

Put glue on both pieces and keep looking at them until the sheen changes then lightly touch each on with finger and when not sticky then press them together, practice on a spare piece and you will discover that the laminate will not come off without an air hammer.

Don

use pieces of dowel

Ian Neuhaus

to keep the surfaces apart till you have them aligned and then stick from the center out to each end.