Heat Resistent Adhesive?

March 15, 2009 6:55 PM

Looking for a heat resistant adhesive to use to attach feet onto my laptop.

I bought this and like the a few reviews say, they fall off often because of the heat.

I currently attach them to my battery since that is probably the least hot section of the bottom of my laptop.

Either I can find another more cooler place for them, or I could find some adhesive to replace the given one that would not so easily fail under the heat.

Any suggestions?

posted by gzimmer to computers & internet (11 answers total)

Araldite. Heat, water and chemical resistant.
posted by fire&wings at 7:02 PM on March 15, 2009

My concern about epoxy is that it typically gets very hot during curing. And since I'd want to use it on a laptop, possibly the battery, that such heat could lead to....awful things....
posted by gzimmer at 7:22 PM on March 15, 2009

Elmer's Stix-all self curing self leveling silicone
posted by hortense at 7:28 PM on March 15, 2009

Epoxy should work.
posted by O9scar at 7:29 PM on March 15, 2009

I love Araldite, but neither that or epoxy would be my choice. They're hard. Even Araldite can let go of surfaces where it doesn't have a proper bite.
I'd go with a high temperature silicone. Available at auto parts stores, it should be able to handle the excessive thermal expansion differential between the feet and the laptop.


http://tinyurl.com/cwr3kc
posted by asavage at 7:33 PM on March 15, 2009 [2 favorites]

Even a garden variety RTV Silicone is going to be fine. Regular general purpose RTV is good to 200+^oC.
posted by Mitheral at 7:39 PM on March 15, 2009

@asavage: total nerdgasm at you responding! Does that have the same heating during curing issue as epoxy?


@hortense: I'm leaning most towards your link, since that sounds like the least insane option here.
posted by gzimmer at 7:39 PM on March 15, 2009

It might be a good idea to scratch up the plastic with an emery board or very fine sandpaper- just a little, and just where you plan on dropping the glue. It gives you more surface area for the glue to grip.
posted by jenkinsEar at 8:04 PM on March 15, 2009

Equivalent to stix-all is permatex windshield sealant good stuff to use as it flows a little and smooths itself out .
posted by hortense at 9:06 PM on March 15, 2009

Heat during curing is is a complete non-issue. You're talking about a few tens of cubic millimetres of glue per joint here. It would have to heat like thermite to produce enough heat energy to damage anything. Even if you used a hundred times too much glue, it would warm less than a running laptop.

In fact just about any non-water-soluble glue will work fine to glue plastic feet to a plastic laptop case. As asavage notes, a less rigid glue like a silicone will probably last better. If you're going to use a silicone glue, use a fairly thick layer (at least a millimetre); the point of silicone is that it's nice and flexible and deals well with differential expansion, but if the cured silicone is too thin, that expansion can tear it.

Personally, I'd use hot-melt glue-gun glue. Goes on quick, sticks well enough for this job if you're quick to assemble the joint, is somewhat flexible, sticks better when warmed. Even quite a leg-burning laptop is not going to be hot enough to re-melt it. Apply a pea-sized blob to the foot, then slap it straight on the laptop before it cools. Yes, you'll be dumping far more heat into the laptop case this way than you would with even the most aggressive epoxy. No, it won't matter.

Before applying any kind of glue, you need to make sure that both the surfaces to be glued are scrupulously clean. Grease and gunk are the enemies of good glue joints.

In particular, you want to use a pad wetted with some kind of solvent to get rid of all traces of the self-adhesive film that the feet come supplied with. Some of these self-adhesives dissolve easily in alcohol, and alcohol is usually not too hard on plastics, so methylated spirits or rubbing alcohol would be the first thing I tried. If that didn't work, I'd try a little unleaded gasoline - go carefully with this as it might tend to dissolve the underlying plastic. Let the solvent dry to the point where you can't really smell it any more before you glue on the feet.
posted by flabdablet's sock puppet at 4:50 PM on March 17, 2009

Thanks for the extensive answer, flabdablet. Glad someone addressed my concerns about heating during curing. Also, giving me an answer that involves things I already own was perfect too!
posted by gzimmer at 9:44 PM on March 17, 2009