- I’m looking for either glue or paint that will adhere and hold reasonably well to lead. I have been casually looking for glue for some time and haven’t found any but if I can coat the lead with some type of paint, perhaps there is glue that can hold onto the painted surface. Any suggestions? - MC
Metal doesn’t lend itself well to gluing and lead may be more of a problem due to its softness and rapid oxidation when exposed to air. You’ll be gluing (or painting) to a gray oxide surface that is easily pulled off the base metal.
I can’t think of any application where I’d want to glue lead rather than use another attchment method. If that’s what you need to do though I’d try some type of sticky texture contact cement like that used for laminating Formica counter tops. Scrape off the oxide just before gluing so you see bright shiny metal. I wouldn’t use a hard curing glue such as expoy or cyanoacrylate as I would with hard metals and good contact surfaces.
What are you trying to glue?
Depends on the “lead” in question. Wargamers and role-players have used paint and glue successfully with lead miniatures for decades. Of course, now most of them are an alloy (that HATES paint and glue, I might add), but lead is so soft that I never had a problem with either substance adhering. What precisely are you working on? Lead pipe? I need a few more details here.
Ask the people at the painting store where you buy it.