[sdiy] Synth Panel Window Adhesive

[dh at atoav.com]

Whichever glue you use the most important things about gluing are:

- area of the contact surface: should not be too small. What is too 
small depends on the glue and on the materials involved. Tests help.

- roughness of the contact surface: What is the right amount depends on 
the glue and the material involved. Tests help.

- the contact surfaces need to be absolutely clean. Wear a fresh pair of 
nitril gloves, clean the surfaces throughly with isopropanol

- after glueing clamp stuff down to A) keep it in place and B) apply a 
perpendicular force to the glue joint which thins out the glue layer, 
which in turn makes the joint stronger

- contact surface without glue is usless contact surface. Use a glue 
spreader/spatula to spread the glue thin over the whole area. If you 
apply pressure after, you typically don't need a lot of glue. Think 
about how you would add thermal paste to a CPU if that helps.

- if one of the contact surfaces is a painted/laminated surface: with 
enough force this lamination might be pulled or sheared off. Consider 
sanding the surface before gluing

The rest depends on the type of glue used, some mentioned epoxyd, which 
should work, but I'd probably go for a more elastic joint here, e.g. 
silicone based glues. Cyanoacrylate would work too, but is not as elastic.

TL;DR: clean the contact areas, make sure they are not too small, make 
sure the contact areas are indeed filled with glue.

Cheers,
atoav

On 2024-02-29 10:20, Mike Bryant wrote:
> I get the perspex made with a lip on all four sides, then apply a thin 
> film of epoxy all around and push into the whole.  But even with a 
> protective film, if you get the epoxy leaking onto the visible area the 
> window is scrap.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of 
> ackolonges fds via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> *Sent:* 29 February 2024 03:25
> *To:* Synth-Diy mailing list <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> *Subject:* [sdiy] Synth Panel Window Adhesive
> Hi Synth-DIYers!
> 
> I have a question that might be a little bit OT, but I was wondering, 
> for those of you that have built synth panels with perspex / acrylic 
> windows, what did you use to hold the window in place, and how well did 
> it work?
> 
> I've built a few things now that used 7-segment style LED displays, and 
> I've put rectangular holes in their powder coated metal panels, laser 
> cut some tinted perspex to size and tried things like pressure fitting 
> (too easily dislodged, or broken while being pushed in) and glues, which 
> are a bit messy and hard to avoid having some of the glue showing up on 
> the front panel...
> 
> I'd love to hear your experience and any solutions you may have found!
> 
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