Conductive glue?

Thrusterhead Jones · Post by **Thrusterhead Jones** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:10 pm

Do any of you out there have any experience with conductive glue? Either the commercially made or home made (as seen on the Instructables web site)?

Richard Baker · Post by **Richard Baker** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:59 pm

http://scientificsonline.com/product.as ... 1236372510
I tried this last year- I ran a metter over differnt lengths of it and found it does conduct but not well. It also bries into a brittle film which flakes off most surfaces.
I had hoped to use it for lighting parts on pylons and it did not work well enough to use.

.

Wug · Post by **Wug** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:05 am

You might be able to buy it locally. Auto parts stores sold conductive glue for repairing rear window defrosters. I'm not sure if they still sell it.

Mike

Thrusterhead Jones · Post by **Thrusterhead Jones** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:41 am

Something I just thought of- copper based gasket goop. I't been a long time (25 years or so) since I've used it, and can't remember if or how it dries.

After posting my original enquiry I mixed a small portion of powdered "H" drafting lead with the thicker style Super Glue and attached a lead to an SMT LED. It dried pretty quickly. Tomorrow I'll check it with my VOM for conductivity and resisance.

Kenny · Post by **Kenny** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:59 am

Haven't tried it but in New Zealand we have an epoxy filled with fine ferrous particles that claims conductivity. I've seen it in a hardware store

Umi_Ryuzuki · Post by **Umi_Ryuzuki** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:58 am

Wug wrote:You might be able to buy it locally. Auto parts stores sold conductive glue for repairing rear window defrosters. I'm not sure if they still sell it.

Mike

They still sell it, but the conductive part is not glue.

The glue that they do include in the kit is to glue the
metal plug tab to the glass. The brown conductive "paint"
is just that, a paint.

I have been using it to repair the soft touch contact pads
on an old tv remote control... it doesn't stick well to rubber, and
wears quickly.

I have used a product from Arctic Silver that conducts heat.
It is a heat sink epoxy, but I have never tried it for electrical conductivity.

If you need an electrical contact through a joint, or seam, it might
be better to build or drill a metal pin into it somewhere.

Ziz · Post by **Ziz** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 9:56 am

Google search pcb repair kit

Not cheap, though.

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:28 am

There is an epoxy glue filled with nickle fillings, note that you have to wait for it to dry. It is none conductive prior to curing.

Also super glue is a great insulator, had some issues with gluing surface mount leds down then soldering to them, caused by the glue dripping over the pads. Had to solder so long that the heat melted the super glue and the part broke free, defeated the purpose of gluing it down in the first place

There are some silver pens out there for repairing circuit boards, but they have a shelf life so don't try getting it from a regular store unless you know they sell a lot of it.

There is also very thin copper tape, it works well enough but you have to be fast with soldering since the heat will melt and cook off the glue backing.
http://kc6sye.com/images/images_05_04/t ... s_lits.jpg

macfrank · Post by **macfrank** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:59 am

Sparky wrote: There is also very thin copper tape, it works well enough but you have to be fast with soldering since the heat will melt and cook off the glue backing.
http://kc6sye.com/images/images_05_04/t ... s_lits.jpg

The copper tape is fairly cheap, too - it's available at any hardware or garden store and it's used to repel snails and slugs from gardens.

Richard Baker · Post by **Richard Baker** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:15 am

I would go with copper tape instead of this conductive glue. The sample I bought and tried (from the link above0 beaded up into clots and was not very conductive- I ran the metter on several lengths. It also does not stick to anything very well for being a 'glue'.
It does work enough to decribe as the ad does, but not very practical and the clts would be thicker that the metal tape.
Bare metal foils would be another alternative.

.

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:33 am

The tape I got was from the stain glass supplies section at hobby lobby. I had to slice it down since they didn't have narrower strips. Also the sticky was better at handling heat than the proper width copper tape I got from the circuit board repair section at the electronics store.

Thrusterhead Jones · Post by **Thrusterhead Jones** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 12:08 pm

After the superglue/pencil lead mix dried for over a day I checked the joint's conductivity- nope, nada, zip. I'll try soldering the wires onto the LED.

Thanks for the suggestions,

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 12:50 pm

Thrusterhead Jones wrote:After the superglue/pencil lead mix dried for over a day I checked the joint's conductivity- nope, nada, zip. I'll try soldering the wires onto the LED.

Thanks for the suggestions,

that's because pencil lead contains no lead at all, just graphite & binders.

I did find this @ Mouser

Thrusterhead Jones · Post by **Thrusterhead Jones** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:09 pm

$25.95? Yikes!

I've got plenty of 1206 LEDs to practice on, an illuminated magnifying lamp, and a low-wattage soldering iron with a pointed tip. These should do the trick. I just wanted to try something different.

Thanks for the input.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:39 pm

Kylwell wrote:
Thrusterhead Jones wrote:After the superglue/pencil lead mix dried for over a day I checked the joint's conductivity- nope, nada, zip. I'll try soldering the wires onto the LED.

Thanks for the suggestions,
that's because pencil lead contains no lead at all, just graphite & binders.

The graphite itself would conduct nicely, but the binders (wax, ceramic powder and oils) are quite nonconductive, rendering the pencil lead almost as nonconductive. Maybe if you got powdered graphite (the kind used as lubricant) in with the adhesive you'd get something going.

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:51 pm

A regular pencil lead will conduct great in the right application. We used construction pencils as spark gaps (the thick flat kind). And I tried to use a pencil to move an electrode once, it was not as insulative as I'd planned, by the feel of it the spark came down the pencil lead to the medal erase clamp and into the back side of my hand.

Richard Baker · Post by **Richard Baker** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:36 pm

IIRC there used to be a way of hot-rodding AMD CPU chips by using a pencil to bridge certain parts of the chip top.

.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:38 pm

Sparky wrote:A regular pencil lead will conduct great in the right application. We used construction pencils as spark gaps (the thick flat kind). And I tried to use a pencil to move an electrode once, it was not as insulative as I'd planned, by the feel of it the spark came down the pencil lead to the medal erase clamp and into the back side of my hand.

Made a arc lamp once with pencil leads. Wood is amazingly conductive when it wants to be.

Tchail · Post by **Tchail** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:49 pm

Has anyone heard of wire glue?

Does anyone have an opinion of this?

(It would seem to be a safe way of dealing with those tiny surface mount LEDs...)

http://www.wireglue.us/

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-st ... ./-/1.html

Richard Baker · Post by **Richard Baker** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:57 pm

I have some of that 'Wire Glue'- very disappointing. It does not conduct very well and is not much of a glue.
They do make some conductive epoxies- I had a thread looking for some like that a couple of weeks ago. They are expensive and I have not bought them yet.

.

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