Does Wood Glue Work On Plastic?

Both plastic and wood are very common materials in the house. They even make great tools for most DIY projects. If you want to use an adhesive to repair or create something with plastic, then you might be curious about wood glue. Maybe you have some leftover wood glue for a plastic project; wood glue has quite a reputation for holding most objects together. We have carefully researched if wood glue will work on plastic.

Although there are different types of wood glue, most wood glues are not ideal for plastic objects. This is because the point of wood glue is to soak into the target. This means that traditional wood glue, like the signature yellow glue, is best designed for porous items. Plastic is never a porous material, and it is synthetic rather than natural. Instead, it is best to use other glues such as epoxy when you bond plastic.

There are so many types of glue; it can get confusing to decide which one is best for certain jobs. This is especially true for wood glue, which is a fantastic adhesive for most common objects. But you should keep reading to learn what glues are available and which ones are actually the best for plastic.

The man Mixing the epoxy glue for stick the plastic part, Does Wood Glue Work On Plastic?

What glue do you use to stick wood to plastic?

Although it is technically possible to use any kind of glue on any desired objects, the adhesion just won’t always work. Epoxy resin is the best possible glue for sticking wood with plastic. Epoxy is a synthetic material, which is one part resin and one part hardener.

Click here to find this epoxy adhesive on Amazon.

It’s actually possible to paint some epoxy glue products. Under the right circumstances, you can also sand down epoxy resin. You just have to make sure to use wet sandpaper and fine grain. Epoxy can be especially waterproof, which is essential if you want to avoid moisture buildup in wood. All of these attributes are especially useful for wood projects. Specialists like Woodcraft agree that epoxy can be successfully used as a wood stabilizer.

However, epoxy glue is also powerful enough for other synthetic materials like plastic. In fact, you can even use epoxy glue on metal objects. Epoxy is often found to be one of the most durable and pliable glues on the market. It does not require a porous substance and instead can work with pretty much everything. Epoxy has even been used to protect entire hardwood floors. You can read this post to learn if you can epoxy a wood floor.

Does gorilla wood glue work on plastic?

Gorilla wood glue will work on some types of plastic because of the polyurethane ingredient in most of their products. But although Gorilla wood glue can technically be used on textured plastics, it won’t always give you the right kind of adhesion.

Gorilla glue is a powerful tool, but it simply won’t bond as well with materials such as plastic and metal. This is because Gorilla wood glue, like most other glues, also has PVA in its recipe.

PVA is an acronym for Polyvinyl acetate, which is specifically made to bond with porous materials like paper. Most of the glue on any shelf is going to have PVA in it. For example, PVA is commonly used in school glue, which was made with young children in mind. But despite the broad range of PVA glue products, none of them are ideal for plastic. PVA also doesn’t have the viscosity you need, which is just the thickness of the liquid.

Even when you use Gorilla wood glue for the intended wood projects, you will typically need to clamp the pieces together until it is totally cured. This isn’t an ideal process for plastic, either. You can read this post to learn about five types of clamps that will meet all of your DIY needs.

How long does Super Glue take to dry on plastic?

Super Glue is a special kind of adhesive that uses ethyl cyanoacrylate, otherwise known as ECA. The liquid form of the Super Glue is primed to react with any level of water. Since water is usually in the air itself, most objects have some surface layer of water. In other words, the moment Super Glue touches plastic or almost anything else it will begin to harden.

Click here to find this twelve-pack of Super Glue on Amazon.

Now, although it only takes about half a minute or less for the Super Glue to harden, it takes much longer to fully bond. Specialists such as Glue Authority agree that Super Glue will usually take around 24 hours to completely cure. That means that although Super Glue dries quickly, it typically hasn’t reached full strength until a day goes by.

What is the best glue to use on plastic?

The best glue for just about any job is Super Glue because it’s so versatile. But Super Glue might dry too quickly for certain jobs. If you’re looking to do something creative or repair a plastic item, you probably want more than half a minute to get everything just right.

Super Glue is also sometimes known to melt softer plastics too much, which you likely want to avoid. It also doesn’t deal very well with torsional stress. This means that two glued objects won’t be very flexible in all directions and that a slight bend in the wrong direction could potentially break the glue.

Click here to find this Loctite plastic bonding system on Amazon.

Loctite

There are some exceptions, such as Loctite’s plastic bonding product. But this adhesive is specially designed for plastics that are harder to work with. Some plastics are less likely to form a bond than others.

Click here to find this PlasticWeld epoxy putty on Amazon.

Epoxy Glue

The man Mixing the epoxy glue for stick the plastic part, Does Wood Glue Work On Plastic?

This leaves you with Epoxy glue, which can bond most things together. In fact, the popular brand PlasticWeld uses epoxy for most of their products, including putty. Epoxy is the most well-known two-part adhesive, but similar two-part adhesives will always be stronger than a singular substance.

Polyurethane Glue

You may also use some polyurethane glue, which is known to work with most plastics. It’s a bit strange since it foams up when it interacts with moisture. It’s both very tough and very flexible, making it a good option for plastic. However, this so-called PU glue is generally reserved for much higher stress levels than small pieces of plastic.

How do you glue two pieces of plastic together?

There are actually many different kinds of plastic, and they will each require various levels of adhesive strength.

Therefore, the first thing you need to do is find the correct kind of glue strength. Plastics will usually have a direct marking on the object or packaging to tell you what you need to know. The recycling category of plastic can actually determine the correct category for you.

Next, you should probably clean the pieces of plastic. Any adhesive will have a better bond without any grime to interrupt the hardening process. And finally, you can use either the tube or a brush to apply the glue. A brush may not always be ideal if you’re using something like Super Glue, which can easily destroy the bristles.

Summary

There are countless types of glue products on the market, which can make it tough to choose the right one. Especially when most of them claim to bond with pretty much anything. The trick is to find the ideal glue for your own project. This is mainly determined by the materials that need to be bonded. Now that you know how wood glue works and which glues are best for plastic, you can create or fix just about anything.

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