"Wire Glue" Conductive Glue????

[michaelplogue]

Came across this on Thinkgeek.com - wonder how well this would work on circuit boards............

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/b70c/

 

[D-Man]

"Beagle's" an expert on conductive glue. He built his entire battery pack with it. And it didn't work.

 

[Mr. Mik]

I spliced two multi stranded copper cables together after covering them with this glue. It was just for experimental purposes and did not work well. The cables could be pulled apart again with a bit of effort. Bending them will crack and weaken the glue immediately.
It also dissolves again in water.


The glue seems to be a sort of aqueous emulsion of charcoal powder.

 

[michaelplogue]

Good to know.... Thanks!

 

[julesa]

Beagle123 tried this exact same glue, and also tried some conductive epoxy. The epoxy held better but neither conducted well. At least the glue was easier to scrape off... :?

 

[Dee Jay]

Anyone tried this ?

http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/8331.html

 

[Eric]

I've used loaded epoxies in the semiconductor and microwave electronics industry for a couple decades. This type of material may be alright for repairing a PCB or mounting a low power die (chip) on a lead frame, but don't try to use it on batteries or interconnects that require low resistance. As a comparison, eutectic SnPb solder has a volume resistivity of around 10e-5 Ohm-cm; epoxy is about 0.3 Ohm-cm. The good conducting epoxies are usually brittle and the "reworkable", softer epoxies don't conduct as well. Many require a 135C cure for 30 min or so.

Generally, these materials are great for large area contacts that don't require much thermal or electrical conductivity and in applications which cannot withstand the temperatures of soldering. It works great on fixing rear window de-foggers.

For very good conduction use silver paint, but don't expect it hold anything together. It flakes off very easily, is relatively expensive and gives off nasty volatiles while curing.

The wire glue looks very good for its intended purpose: providing marginally resistive connections and weak adhesion in a non-toxic material. I may need to get some for electronic "craft" projects with my kids. Halloween anyone?

Eric

 

[e-noob]

back in the days of volt-modding my brand new $450 video card... I got laughed at just for thinking/asking if there might be another way other than using solder. . .
(yeah, I used solder... *cry*)

 

[Dee Jay]

Generally, these materials are great for large area contacts that don't require much thermal or electrical conductivity and in applications which cannot withstand the temperatures of soldering. It works great on fixing rear window de-foggers.

I've been itching to buy this product for my rotary switch project but I don't need a syringe full of it so I may just grind some of my own silver if not nickel (5 cent coin) .

Thanks for the info Eric!

J