# How best to glue metal parts to miscellaneous plastics? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 19, 2024, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-best-to-glue-metal-parts-to-miscellaneous-plastics/1011888 "2024-12-19T22:07:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-best-to-glue-metal-parts-to-miscellaneous-plastics/1011888/41 "2024-12-24T14:30:21Z")
So, a couple PhDs and half a chem lab later, are the essential oils properly labeled yet? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-best-to-glue-metal-parts-to-miscellaneous-plastics/1011888/42 "2024-12-24T15:53:05Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > are the essential oils properly labeled yet? Question is more than fair. Not yet. Holiday distractions have displaced chem lab activities. I want to re-find the article that lists hot melt glue resins, and use all those names to search for a vendor who sells end user quantities of several of them (so far the only vendors who do list the base polymer are listing ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA). It’s easy to find that – I could probably have gotten some at the grocery store yesterday! I want to try several on my test caps and test bits of aluminum. I might also use a few of the suggestions like TriPolar’s above. I overheard some reindeer whispering together, from which I gleaned that the collection is going to grow slightly tomorrow. So it’s still absolutely a priority – but so is the gift wrapping. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2024, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-best-to-glue-metal-parts-to-miscellaneous-plastics/1011888/43 "2024-12-24T15:58:51Z")
Let us know what your testing reveals! ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2024, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-best-to-glue-metal-parts-to-miscellaneous-plastics/1011888/44 "2024-12-24T22:11:47Z")
[Another test video](https://youtu.be/sooI6QZCBH0?si=QhbCtC7OJtA6d0a8). Haven’t watched it yet. Polyethylene/propylene are regarded as very difficult materials to glue, and aluminum is not that easy either. One to the other is a special problem. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-best-to-glue-metal-parts-to-miscellaneous-plastics/1011888/45 "2024-12-25T01:25:23Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > So, a couple PhDs and half a chem lab later, This _is_ the 'Dope after all. It does take the full panoply of human knowledge to resolve even the simplest of problems. Fortunately, we have that full panoply well-covered. And this is not one of the simpler problems. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-best-to-glue-metal-parts-to-miscellaneous-plastics/1011888/46 "2024-12-26T16:59:16Z")
A strong join of polyethylene to aluminum is a special problem. A join that’s just strong enough to hold on a label is much easier. Which doesn’t stop Dopers from trying to solve the hard problem anyway, because that’s just how we are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-best-to-glue-metal-parts-to-miscellaneous-plastics/1011888.md?page=2)