Timothy Murphy wrote:
I haven't been following this discussion,
but re the title, wasn't Araldite originally developed
for sticking together small jet planes?

IIRC, it was developed at Duxford, south of Cambridge (UK),
which I think was an air base at the time,
perhaps in the 1950s?


Used with high temperature bonding, epoxies make very fine aluminium
glues indeed. In fact there are thousands of different formulations
available for specific applications.

Araldite is just one, and its not really optimized for anything apart
from a decent shelf life.

Epoxies are substantially inferior to polyesters in a hobby/DIY
situation, their one advantage being that they are less irritating and
stiffer than polyesters.. However the addition of metal powder and other
fillers to polyester resins to make a typical 'liquid metal' formulation
solves the viscosity problem and the fact that the reaction is catalytic
means that the accurate mixing and consistent stirring that is so
importance with epoxies is no longer an issue.

I use both a lot, and really epoxy is surpsringly tricky to use..it MUST
be mixed really throughly, or it never sets, its not that strong, and a
hint of grease or oxide anywhere and it simply tears off.

The metal loaded polyesters (chemical metal) seem to degrease more
readily in themselves, always set with more or less the right amount of
hardener even when poorly mixed, and seem to adhere a bit better to
olefin plastics,

Whilst epoxies, correctly used under industrial control are undoubtedly
superior, used under indifferent circumstances the polyesters are far
more reliable.