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I have a weird stack of materials I need to glue and I'm not sure what to use. I'm going to sandwich a cheap plastic meat tray from the supermarket, some thin aluminum mesh, and some styrene I-beam. It needs to be strong and not brittle, and the base materials will have some flex to them. I was thinking of tacking the aluminum mesh into place on the plastic tray with CA glue, laying a thick bead of caulk or Liquid Nails through the mesh to the plastic, and pressing the styrene pieces into it. Would a chemical bond be better? I don't see how it would hold the mesh in place. CA glue seems to brittle in general, but I'm not sure which caulk or silicone adhesive would be better. Also, can I do this post-primer with a light sanding, or better to go surface to surface? I'm hoping to paint, then assemble. CA wicks through primer pretty well, but I'm not sure about other adhesives.

Thanks for your ideas! Here's the piece in question:

Seeing as all or the joins are hidden away I'd go with hot glue, and lots of it. Preferably a low temperature stick if you can get it.

Thanks... I don't have one, but maybe I should. Is it the glue stick or the gun that controls application temperature?

Still thinking about silicone caulk as well... any experience there?

Generally the cheap glue guns you can buy from craft or dollar stores will be low temperature and fine for this type of application. Grab one for a few bucks and have a play.

Guns and sticks from diy stores tend to run a bit hotter.

Hot sticks work in cold guns slowly, cool sticks work really really quickly in hot guns. It depends on how much glue you want down at any one time.
There's no real science to it until you pay $ for big brands with variable settings and different sticks.

If it's a tool that you like using then you can take a look at "Surebonder" for fully controlled application.

MacPhail,

If a glue gun is not in the cards, then two part epoxy (5 minute) is the solution. Will stick to all the different types of surfaces, is a little flexible after curing, etc.

Apply it upside down, and then the epoxy will settle into the mesh (in the five minutes it takes to dry) and make a very strong bond.

My two cents,

CB

Great, I appreciate that... This is a big enough job that I'd use a whole applicator in the process, which is what makes epoxy sometimes seems less efficient. Plus I feel like that will allow me to pre-paint and then do a little light sanding, which will massively improve efficiency. I need to spray the inside of the meat trays black so the LEDs won't show through it, then I'll just sand the inside of the "roof" for the epoxy to adhere to. The mesh and crosspieces can be fully painted and detailed ahead of assembly and I'll just bury them in a wad of epoxy rather than worry too much about surface-to-surface adhesion.

Just make certain you do the epoxy in small batches...if you squeeze out the whole tube of 5 minute, it will harden before you get to all your pieces.

Cheers,

CB