No matter what I do, I can't get anything I make to stick together! My most recent project is a sturdy container/bowl for my cook kit. I could not find anything tall enough to fit a Rock Star 24oz tall can in so I took two Ziplock Tupperware containers and cut the center out of the lids and then tried to glue the two "lid rings" together to make a joining piece for the ziplock containers so that I have two bowls as well as one protective container in my two man kit. I used Gorrila Glue to glue the rings together but they just keep coming apart! I'm at the end of my rope since this is not the first time I haven't been able to glue something and have it hold. I've used Gorrila Glue and Epoxy and both just end up comping apart after two or three uses. What am I doing wrong?!

You'll have a hard time glueing that type of plastic. Just tape the two halves together.

Edited by kthompson on 11/05/2011 14:18:26 MDT.

Chuckle!
Tupperware is usually polyethylene, and as Ken has already said that is not gluable using any normal household sort of glue. At an industrial/manufacturing level you could try contacting Loctite to see what they have. but even with their specialised adhesives the bond will not be strong.

You could try 'welding' the two bits together - melting the two bits in contact with each other, but the results would be not pretty and doing that is extremely hard.

Sorry, but this is not a project with much hope of success, apart from the duct tape idea.

Cheers

Edited by rcaffin on 11/05/2011 14:23:10 MDT.

Actually the duct tape idea worked like a charm and if it ever gives out, I always carry a good length of the stuff in my gear repair kit already! Thanks, that just cured my headache.

Glad that the duct tape is working for you.

I was thinking that it could help to roughen the plastic before trying to glue them together. Just some coarse sandpaper would help the bond immensely. I'm not sure about the types of plastics involved here but you could give the model aircraft/car section at your local Walmart/Target a look and see if their adhesives will work with your setup.

> it could help to roughen the plastic before trying to glue them together. Just some
> coarse sandpaper would help the bond immensely.
You are welcome to try it, but it ain't gunna work. The surface of PE is inherently 'hostile' to adhesives at the molecular level. Of course, many see that as a huge bonus.

Cheers

I had a similar situation trying to hold my old stainless steel pot and lid around my Sierra zip stove.
I ended up using two of those big rubber bands you find on Broccoli from the super market.
I put the rubber bands at right angles to each other around the pot and lid.
The zip stove was too large and prevented the lid and pot from nesting properly but with those two big wide purple rubber bands around them they were stabilized enough to contain and protect my zip stove, spork, and piece of tin foil for frying trout.