Silicon or hot glue or what to fix connectors

[ltosolini]

In the previous build of my electric scooter I used hot-glue to insulate and firmly hold together cables welded to cells and connectors.
But thinking over it, now that I want to rebuild the scooter from scratch, I realize that it was a bad idea, because if a cables warm up they can melt the glue, then cables get loose, can touch, make a short and start a disaster.
So I am thinking about silicon which is more flexible, which is not so good, but can resist to high temperature, water and weather.
What do you think? Any other easily available material?

 

[Highfreak]

Have you considered epoxy? I think some kinds are conductive so you might want to beware of those.

 

[Dauntless]

I can't think of any silicon that will hold anything together.

This is not a real recommendation, but I suppose you could try gorilla glue. It's urethane, which does not want to let go. You activate it with a little water, or if you want it to foam use more water. I was learning to make molds with urethane and occasionally someone would forget to put mold release on the master model. Kiss it goodbye, that stuff was NOT coming off. . . .

 

[Highfreak]

I think he meant silicone not "silicon".

 

[Dauntless]

Either way, I don't think either one is used for real strength.

 

[DingusMcGee]

Have you tried high temp hot glue? It often works better than normal temp sticks.

For toughness polyurethane sealant [construction grade] beats sillycone and it cleans up with paint thinner. It takes a pretty high temperature to melt it. If you have to take the item apart at a later date, the poly U will be somewhat more difficult to tear apart than silicone gluing would make.

Wherever you use silicone, it leaves a thin film of "silicone contaminate" that keeps most things from sticking to that surface as well as they did to the initial silicone free surface -- call it silicone contamination -- It even makes bonding silicone over silicone less strong than what the initial application achieved.

There may be some controlled harmful substances [solvents] that can remove silicone contamination. But sanding can do it. And for poly U use paint thinner for clean up.

 

[aroundqube]

http://catalog.berryplastics.com/catalog-images/3513_TDSNashuaStrSeal_R010816.pdf