Would somebody please 'splain to me about ...

[basketcase]

Epoxy.

You know, the super good glue that you mix up before use.

A while back, I hit a bump that broke off a connector in the plastic housing that holds in the rear speakers on the K top box. Fortunately, I was able to recover the several itty bitty pieces.

After the sun finally came out, I mixed up a batch of Epoxy and stuck it back together. The instructions say it is cured in 24 hours, but after two day propped up in the sun, it still does not really feel hard.

I used a mix of 50/50, that is, half resin and half hardener.

Is it supposed to get hard to the touch, or is the slightly sticky, not quite hard feel okay?

Still no "General Tech" board. I might put the link to this over on the other tech boards for good measure. :help

[CustomSarge]

Epoxy sets up solid, anything less than that indicates old, separated or badly mixed parts. This situ sux, I've been victim of this TOO many times & expect to get bit again trying to use stuff that "should be ok". If plastic to plastic is to be done, the right solvent/glue for the plastic type bypasses the epoxy issue. Epoxy isn't the best for many plastics, since coefficients of expansion are so different to vinyls, styrenes & PVCs. Sorry to be a conduit of bad news, warming with a hairdryer can "push" hardener that would otherwise take Much longer to set up. Good Luck <<<)))

[The_Veg]

Also, generally speaking, the slower the cure the less brittle the end result will be. This is useful to keep in mind sometimes. My favourite epoxy of all time I think was called Hobby Poxy and it came in two big squeeze bottles and had an eight-hour set time, with cure complete in 24. Held like nobody's business and was far from brittle. Stuff stayed put but never cracked free. Since the components were in liquid form, I used small plastic measuring cups to get the mix right. Most often I'd mix just a few grams which would be way more than I needed and therefore wasteful, but was the smallest amount for which the cups were marked. Worth it though to get such great results! Wooden popsicle-type sticks were often the best applicators. Hobby Poxy, cups and sticks all came from the local R/C hobby shop. I used to be into R/C airplanes so I learned a whole heluva lot about adhesives in that hobby!

[lorazepam]

Sarge has the ticket for your troubles. Using the proper solvent/glue for your particular plastic is the right way to go. Having a failure from improper adhesives, and losing your stuff would suck. Epoxy should be hard and not sticky after curing.

[kbasa]

I've used some adhesive called Plastic Weld or somesuch that actually fuses the two items together. I used it to fix a broken tab on the fairing on my S bike and it held for years.

It was a two part process. You put a primer on the two pieces to be fused, let it set up and then brush some kind of activator on both parts and then press them together. It fused to full strength in 12 hours or so and was stuck together pretty fully in a couple minutes.

[basketcase]

As in, I should have asked before putting three applications of epoxy on this project, instead of afterwards.

It's been three weeks since I started this fix, and the epoxy has dried to a stiff, but somewhat rubbery consistency.

What I'm hoping is that when I put it all back together that there will be enough give, and enough tensile strength, for it to hold in spite of my ignorance.

:brow

[CustomSarge]

Rick, can you post a picture of the area in question? I can't sort whether it's the connector housing or the body panel itself needing reconstruction. Connectors are commonly nylon/delrin, which is tough to glue, but relatively easy to replace. The interior body panels are ABS, which glues GREAT with simple "all purpose" PVC liquid cement. If reinforcement is required, hobby shops have raw PVC sheet & structural stock to work with. A note on gluing PVC: it's like contact cement, you get 1(!) shot at positioning & it bonds. Good hunting <<<)))

[basketcase]

Albeit after the camera batteries were recharged.

I'll have to post these in two posts, since I don't have a subscription to an online album service.

Now, the "big picture" first.

This photo is of the speaker mounting bracket that mounts on top of the K11LT topbox, but underneath the passenger backrest.

[basketcase]

This picture shows the actual problem area, meaning the attachment point in the housing proper, to which the steel bracket is secured with a lag screw.

It broke off about an inch down, and I have gradually built up the epoxy around it with my (ignorant) attempts to get the sucker glued tight.