Adhesive instead of welding?

[axis]

I need to fab several "T" shaped aluminum angle brackets to hold some Dibond sign panels. Has anyone used the Lord 2 part adhesive that is supposed to be as strong or stronger than welding? I don't have room to set up a welding station and jobbing it means driving 65 miles each way. It'd be great if we could do this in-house. Anyone?

 

[J Hill Designs]

depends on size, but that lords stuff holds pretty darn well

 

[rjssigns]

Always err on the side of caution. What happens if the adhesive fails and someone gets whacked with the panel?

 

[letterman7]

Indoors or out? If there is no way to physically connect with rivets or bolts, Lords or the 3M autobody panel bond adhesive plus a couple sections of 3M VHB tape should hold nicely..

 

[Rick]

Not enough info to tell for sure, but Lords is good stuff and I have called out Lords and VHB for attaching exterior panels.

 

[Moze]

I'm with Rick - VHB and/or Lords will work.

But it also depends on the brackets you're fabbing. What are their dimensions? How much of the surface area of the brackets will be in contact to the face? How many brackets per face?

 

[nwsigns]

We weld aluminum and use Lords every day - Lords is as strong as they claim and I would trust it like a weld any day. I tested it once on dibond and it peeled the face of the panel before letting go.

Just make sure to follow the directions and clean properly - you need to squirt some out of the mixing nozzle before applying so that you get a good mixture (one full nozzle). I hate wasting it since its spendy stuff but have seen failures where I started a bead and it never hardened - read and follow the directions and you will not have any trouble