Electrically Conductive Glue ??

[domino]

Hey all

 

Have any one tried this  ?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Glue-Wiring-Model-Train-Tracks-Loco-Power-Motor-Steam-Freight-Car-DCC-N-/231052782282?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item35cbd1aaca#ht_5234wt_1812

 

 

 

Brian

[cteno4]

Brian,

 

I've not used the black stuff, but have used the silver microspheres paint that trainaidsa.com use to sell. Some info on it:

 

http://www.trainaidsa.com/catalog/support_conductives.php?osCsid=f3ccaaee463fa5a097671032b1269a13

 

Similar stuff

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Pc-0-2ML-Silver-Conductive-Wire-Glue-Paste-for-Electronics-Repair-Applications-/390614991342?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item5af277c1ee

 

Good for fixing wires in place where you can't solder or to make or repair a trace.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited September 12, 2013 by cteno4

[KenS]

The black stuff ("wire glue") is essentially carbon in a binder that's somewhat like PVA white glue (water-based).  I used it with copper tape to wire up the streetlights on my expressway (well, streetlight; I still only have the initial test segment done).  I wrote up some details on a page on my site.

 

It works, and works fairly well.  The downside is that it's runny and hard to keep where you want it on a slick plastic surface (and the surface needs to be absolutely level). Because it's water-based it takes 24 hours to set, which is something of a nuisance in a glue. You also need to stir it well even after a few minutes, as the heavier conducting carbon settles to the bottom of the jar quickly.

 

Resistance is low, a fraction of an Ohm at most (it's below my ability to measure it; but a 4' length of copper tape with multiple glue joints was below the 0.5 Ohm minimum I could measure).

 

Despite the PVA-base, it makes a strong bond. My test strip bonded a wire to a length of copper tape. After testing, I threw it in a pile of other "might need someday" stuff on the back of my workbench.  The last time I saw it, more than a year later, the wire was still bonded to the copper tape, even though the tape itself had peeled away from the plastic it was stuck to.

 

That testing I mentioned involved a 25 cm length of 3mm (1/8") adhesive copper tape stuck to a sheet of styrene , with wires glued to each end with the wire glue. I ran gradually increasing currents through the assembly, checking the temperature with an IR thermometer over a five-minute period for each level of current.  I ended up with 1.2 Amps (at 12V) going through it, and as far as I could tell effectively no heating (might have been a couple of degrees; but that was about the limit of accuracy of my thermometer in that use).

 

In that test, I used a 10 Ohm (25W) resistor to control the current. In the same five minute period that the tape and glue stayed cool, the resistor, which was dissipating 14 Watts, reached 340°F (171°C) and melted a rectangle into the plastic breadboard I had it sitting on.

 

It works. I'm planning to use this glue for a variety of building-lighting projects, although so far I haven't started any of those. 

[Guest Closed Account 1]

My conductive epoxy dried up before I could deplete the mini vials. Haha.