02-11-2015, 05:41 PM
(30-10-2015, 07:36 PM)Yorkie Wrote: I've used 'Super Steel' made by Plastic Padding which I've found excellent for repairing Bakelite cabinets and for re-stuffing caps. I wouldn't trust it for anything structural, but it files, drills and sands well.
I've probably mentioned it on here before, and I was a bit concerned given its title 'Super Steel' that it might be electrically conductive so of no use in situations where that might cause problems. However, I applied a strip of it about 75mm long to a piece of glass, then tested in on my Victor VC60B insulation tester at 1,000V. Infinite resistance. (On the attached pic, the reading '1' doesn't mean 1 Meg - it would read '1' for an open circuit). I've used it to seal the ends of re-stuffed caps which had formerly been sealed with pitch.
The KB 'Toaster' radio cabinet was in several bits when I bought the radio for a fiver at the NVCF. It had been dropped, but luckily the dial had survived, as had the base. I didn't take and 'before' pics, but there were some bits of Bakelite missing. I drilled sideways into the cabinet and inserted pieces of thick paper clips to form an 'armature' and bridge the gap, then I built up with several layers of super steel, sanded it to shape, used high build primer and acrylic red gloss to finish it.
I've never had much success with Milliput, for me, it never seems to adhere well, and I'm not keen on Araldite either, which often seems not to set rock hard.
I do have a glue gun, and use that for quite a few tasks to good effect. As Gary says, they have the merit that you can re-melt the adhesive if need be.
I've used it before to repair steel deck girders on my boat. These girders are used to support the deck-boards as well as to drain off rainwater. I had to wire brush and scrape parts of the original girders to prepare for adhesion (power tools would make this easier). Then I simply lay out the new girders on top of the old ones and used the adhesive. First as a means to tack-weld and then along all the edges. I was quite happy with this as it saved me a fortune on hiring welders.
