Gorilla Glue

[rex6666]

Has anyone used this stuff, it is awsome but does expand so must be used
accordingly.
I promised i would not tell this on my self but i did it and with the help of Gorilla
Glue got away with it.
Wanted to water proof some golf shoes and had a jar or "SNOW SEAL"
directions say article needs to be a round 100 degrees, then apply snow seal
liberaly and the hot leather wit absorb the snow seal.
Well i have done this before with hunting boots so i put the golf shoes in the
"OVEN" and set to warm. This has worked fine in the past, just left the boots
in about 15 min. and all went well. I forgot the shoes for about an hour.
When i pulled them out the only part of the sole left attached was the heels
"what a dumb stunt" I put the snow seal on (went on real easy)
after they cooled i put a lot of "GORILLA GLUE" on the soles and tapped them up
left them alone for 2 days, took the tape off and they are like new, better than
cause now they are water proof, don't let the early mourning dew in.

do you use "GORILLA GLUE" let's hear about it.

[oldandslow]

Yes, I use Gorilla Glue occasionally but not to repair shoes. I use Shoe Goo and Goop for that. I also Huberd's Shoe Grease to water proof my boots. It seems to last a lot longer than Snow Seal per application. No more than I walk in the wet now I don't use much of nything.

[GRIMJIM]

I've used it at work a few times. Mostly to glue prelaminated pieces together where regular wood glue won't work.

I also used it when I made my first pair of saa grips. I cut a scrap piece of wood to fit inside the grip frame and drilled two dowel holes through it. I then split it in half on a band saw.

 This left a gap in between the two pieces when they were placed on the gun so it would fit the frame tighter. I put a coating of dry lubricant (lamilube) on the frame and put a small bead of gorilla glue all around the perimeter of the block and on the dowels and used a spring clamp to hold it together overnight.

The glue swelled and filled the gap solidly. It worked very well.

[Questor]

I'm a glue-o-phile, and have used it. Along with baling wire and duct tape, glue is one of my most valuable tools.

I used Gorilla glue for one application but I do not care for it much as a general glue. It foams up and expands and you lose control, it pushes things apart. It worked OK for that application because neatness didn't count. I was gluing an insulated wooden box together to make a cooler chest that would be outside all the time.

It has been very durable in the elements for almost seven years of extreme cold and damp and genuine abuse. That in itself makes it remarkable. It was good at gluing the foam together, and gluing wood to the foam and other wood.

There are many glues in the handy man's aresenal. I tried this one and liked its weather proof quality at relatively low price.

For fine work, I don't recommend it at all. The verbiage on the bottle is hype. Don't try to fix china or models or anything small, or anything you can't clamp tightly. I also would not use it to apply stuff like weather stripping, where neatness counts, unless you first learn to use it without making a mess.

My recommendation is to give it a try. It's not bad, it's just like other glues: it's good for some applications, not so good for others.

I'd consider using it again for the right application.

[rex6666]

Yes, I use Gorilla Glue occasionally but not to repair shoes. I use Shoe Goo and Goop for that. I also Huberd's Shoe Grease to water proof my boots. It seems to last a lot longer than Snow Seal per application. No more than I walk in the wet now I don't use much of nything.

shoe goo is another good product, i have used it to rebuild the heel and toes of
sneakers (you know the ones that need to be tossed but just fit too well)

[Questor]

I use snow seal and it's fine. One alternative to heating it is just setting it near a window where the sun shines in. That seems to be adequate.

[squirrellluck]

I use the wifes hair dryer. Works well!

[Questor]

I usually put the boots by a heat register, but then a lot of houses don't have heat registers or radiators.

[teamnelson]

i use gorilla glue for mounting furniture pads on chair legs, etc.; works way better than the factory adhesive.

[rockbilly]

rex, I don't think your fix will hold up, gorilla glue does not flex too well and will likely come apart after wearing for a while...............shoe goo or goop would have been a much better choice.

Several years ago I made a repair on a pair of hiking boots with goop, it was intended to be a repair and throw the boots away when we returned home, that has been about five years now and I am still wearing the boots.  They get a lot of rough use but the goop has held up very well even after being totaly soaked in a creek.

[MGMorden]

I've used Gorilla glue on a few things where I didn't care about the expansion.  Like you a pair of shoes that had separated from the sole, and I actually patched up a cracked door jamb with it once.  Seen some guys try to glue together a guitar body with the stuff once and that didn't turn out pretty after the expansion .

I've also seen a guy who had STARTED construction of a home-built airplane using the stuff.  The concept in and of itself isn't too off the wall (most homebuilt wooden aircraft ARE glued together - just with aviation quality glue), but that's just not a job I'd want to trust to some glue I found down at Home Depot .  No clue if he ever finished the plane though.

[Sourdough]

MCMorden:  FAA won't certify the air frame if he did not use Casite Glue, that is the only type they allow to be used on airplanes.

As for Gorilla Glue, I've never used it myself.  But I have seen where people did try and use it to make repairs to plastic items.  Did not work well.  They ended up bringing it to the shop to see if we could make repairs.  We ended up throwing everything out and starting over with new plastic.  Could not get the excess glue off.

[Questor]

Sourdough:

I remember reading about the famous British Mosquito light bomber of WWII. It was made of wood. It was a very nice plane that worked well in Europe, most famously for bombing dams and other strategic sites.

Toward the end of the war they took some to the Pacific theater and several literally fell apart in midair because the mold and humidity of the tropics had deteriorated the hide glue used to build the planes. It's experiences like that that make requirements like Caseite sensible.

[MGMorden]

MCMorden:  FAA won't certify the air frame if he did not use Casite Glue, that is the only type they allow to be used on airplanes.

Maybe on production models (not sure), but that's definitely not the case on homebuilt experimentals.  As you can see from Aircraft Spruce's (an aircraft part's supplier) glue section they sell a pretty wide variety:

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/wp/glues.html

I know that among people building KR2's (http://www.fly-kr.com) the T-88 glue is particularly popular, and many of them that have been built with that are approved and flying.

[Sourdough]

What most people don't realize is that many of the general aviation aircraft are made with wood frames.  Also many of the experimental air craft are wood framed as well.

One of my favorite airplanes the KR-2 has a plywood frame.  All glued togeather.

My friend flies a Kitfox with a wood frame.  He carries a bottle of Gorilla Glue just in the event he needs to make emergency repairs to the wood frame.  Gorilla Glue comes in a small sealed bottle.  One bottle of Gorilla Glue and two rolls of Duct Tape and he can make almost any repair in the field to get him home.

[Sourdough]

McMorden:  You're right, OOps I'm showing my age and the fact I have not been doing repairs and keeping up with the new technologies lately.  When I was taking my Air Craft Maint. classes they did not have the epoxies yet.

And the KR-2 does use the epoxies.  When we built the Quickie my father in law did all the gluing, I only helped with cutting the foam, cutting the plywood bulkheads, and laying up the glass.  But I do remember he did use an epoxy glue.

But still I doubt Gorilla Glue is on the list of acceptable glues for aviation use with the FAA.

[Questor]

I know a little about building aircraft out of wood. Not a lot, but enough to have a sense of what will work. I would never attempt to use Gorilla glue for aviation. For one thing, adhesion is inconsistent unless you really do a good job of clamping.

[Questor]

Now back when I was a mechanic, we had a sticky yellow thin glue that was like thick contact cement that was really good for several applications like gasket heads. Everybody knew it as gorilla snot. I don't remember what the real trade name was because nobody called it that. You just went to the parts counter and got a tube of gorilla snot.

[MGMorden]

But still I doubt Gorilla Glue is on the list of acceptable glues for aviation use with the FAA.

Oh I'm sure that it's not .  I know I wouldn't trust it anyways.  

In general though, despite knowing that it should be OK, I'm personally just a little wary of wood framed aircraft.  I've personally done a little work myself on an aluminum framed/skinned Zenith Zodiac 601XL (essentially just the starter kit which consists of the rudder), but lately I've become more interested in a high wing design (I did my training in a Cessna 150 and the configuration kinda grows on you) - possibly steel tube/fabric.  A Savage Zlin (which is pretty much a reproduction of a Piper Cub with a modern electrical system and the COG adjusted so that front-seat soloing is possible) would be my dream plane, but I don't think I can afford the ~$60,000 price tag on one of those .  I think my only hope of owning my own is homebuilding or possibly just buying something older and used.

[bilmac]

I glued some 2X lumber together with it once and then changed my mind. I had to take the wood apart, the glue would not give. Chopped and whittled the wood away till I was about down to the glue line then had to rasp the remaining splinters away from the glue. I like it because it does foam up to fill gaps.

[kansasj]

You only need two things in the shop---WD-40 and duct tape---If it don't move and should use WD-40--If it moves and should not, use duct tape!!

[littlecanoe]

Barge cement is supposed to be great for shoes.  Flexible.

The epoxy type glues like Gorilla can be brittle from what I've heard.

[45-70.gov]

vulkum  caulking  is  what  i  use  for  shoes

it  remains  flexable  am  wearing  my  favorite   20+ year  old  boots  right  now

the  soles   are  glued  on  with  black  vulkum    left  over  from  a roof  patch

most  any  polyurathane  calking  will  work and  remain  flexable

[i also  have  some  on  some  wallered  lugnuts]

[GH1]

I've used GG to repair the split wooden handles on my screwdrivers.  Works like a champ.
GH1