Adhesive for Floor Ramps

[Kenny_BTFP]

Can someone help point me in the right direction? I am making dance floors with tongue and groove edges and coffin latches to lock together. The floor is complete and ready to use, with the exception of edge ramps. I am working on this design for the ramps that uses a combination of steel tubing, angle steel and sheet steel to build the structured frame. I want to bond a thin sheet of Baltic Birch to the top in order to maintain uniformity with the dance floor. Can someone please recommend a good adhesive to bond 1/8" Baltic birch to the sheet metal. The two pieces are 18" x 47 1/4" with a 6 degree bend to the floor. I preferably need an adhesive that does not expand or expands minimally.

[chiloquinruss]

As a suggestion because you are bonding two different substrates it might make sense to put some small holes in the sheet metal to allow some of the adhesive to 'ooze' through. Might work! Russ

[bobmoore]

You are going to need an adhesive with some flex in my opinion. I would call West Systems tech support. They have tons of data for adhering different materials together. I think there gflex might work.

[waynelocke]

Contact cement might work fine. I agree with Bob, you want a flexible glueline. A ridged glue line will crack and fail with the different rates of expansion.

[Brady Watson]

3M 5200, SikaFlex or Loctite Marine Sealant/adhesive is your best bet. They will bond nearly anything to anything.

When I made my workbench, I adhered 1/8" stainless steel to MDO with the Loctite stuff (next to the 5200 in Depot & like 1/2 the price) - and it has a wicked hold on that. Practically no expansion that I can see. I tried jamming a putty knife between the layers about a week after I laminated them & no dice...I bent the knife trying to get it between!

Bench1 (Medium).JPGBench2 (Medium).JPG

(2X HF72"ers; Receiver pockets for mounting vices, bench grinder etc)


-B