Adhesive Recommendation

[Happyprinter]

Can anyone give me a good idea on what adhesive to use to mount a aluminum sign 8"x8" to a cement wall?

 

[J Hill Designs]

screws!

 

[Happyprinter]

Customer doesn't want screws.

 

[Moze]

Silicone along with VHB tape.

 

[rjssigns]

VHB tape and hope they never want it removed.

 

[TwoNine]

Ehhh.....

 

[artbot]

silkabond silicone adhesive is my new favorite aluminum adhesive. and all i do is glue down aluminum.

 

[ddarlak]

Ehhh.....

oh yea, that was helpful...

but then again, you probably aren't seeing this....

 

[Smacka]

Silkabond. But it has an extremely long cure time. We do car dealerships on 12 x 24 vertical aluminum blanks. Works great.

 

[J Hill Designs]

hmm looking into this silkabond stuff

 

[Moze]

It's actually "Sikabond" (no "l") and takes about a week to cure.

That being said, silicone is cheaper, cures in about a day, and works perfectly. These are tiny 8" x 8" panels. Silicone and a 1" square of VHB tape in each corner and you're golden.

 

[artbot]

if you use silkabond with the vhb is a game changer. also for wood frames to aluminum, i use .5 x .5 x 2 wood blocks and hot glue them in the corners all over as "braces" this holds the aluminum to the frame and center supports while the silkabond cures up. also the hot glue can do a nice pin back instead of a laying a piece facing up and weighting it down which is much less accurate.

but the silkabond needing a week? i just glued up a 4x10 .060 sheet to a yellow pine frame. three hours of cure and you can do whatever you want with it. i've been flipping the piece cutting through. that stuff is completely cured.

also regular silicone does not gap fill. and you need to use a whole lot more silicone to do the same job. i see it as twice as expensive to use even though it's 4x by volume.

 

[J Hill Designs]

yeah documentation says tack free cure in 2-3 hours, full cure in 5-8 days

 

[Moze]

He asked about attaching 8" square pieces of aluminum to cement. He didn't say anything about gap filling. And since he isn't sure how to even attach it, I would guess he's more likely to have silicone around that SikaBond.

So for his particular needs, he wouldn't need anything more than silicone. The VHB tape is just an added measure to hold it in place while the silicone cures.

 

[visual800]

silicone! and one peice of tape to hold it there it aint going no where