Recent posts about epoxies and their uses got me thinking about a need I have for a bonding agent. I just purchased a high end wading staff that has a metal tip epoxied into the end of the staff. The metal tip is very noisy when wading in rocky streams so I purchased some rubber caps from a hardware store and plan to replace the metal tip. A prior wading staff had a rubber cap that lasted ten years. I had epoxied that cap on with golf club epoxy. I’ll be bonding the rubber to metal and am interested in opinions on a bonding agent to use. The inside of the rubber cap has some slightly raised rings, so what ever I use will be filling some minor gaps between the rings.

Thanks,
Jeff Shafer

That's fine, the important thing to remember is that rubber parts can be tough to adhere to anything. It's hard to find adhesives that will bond to them. Some epoxies will work. If you give the inside of the cap a wash with alcohol and then scuff it well, Rod Bond actually works pretty good on rubber items.

3M has a line of adhesives made just for bonding/sealing rubber and plastic parts, although for just doing one rubber cap you may find it cost prohibitable.

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Non-flexible bonding agents like epoxy do not work well when the components being bonded flex, like your rubber cap might. You might want to try a glue that remains flexible after drying, like Shoe Goo. Fortunately, the rubber caps are inexpensive (I think) so if whatever bonding agent you use fails, it is not a big deal to glue on another cap with a different agent for a second "experiment."

For what ever it is worth, I fixed a crack in a coffee container on my Mister Coffee machine about a year ago. It still doesn't leak. And that is glass!

Used rod bond

I was beginning to think Bill just wanted a pat on the back...then I saw his second post! Gotta love that Rod Bond! Rod Bond & Duct Tape can fix anything! Jay

If the Ancient Egyptians had duct tape, the Sphinx would still have a nose.

Jeff, seriously if Bill's Rod Bond doesn't do it, try giving it a squirt of silicone seal for like aquariums and such. I've got an old Shakespeare fishing rod here that lost it's tip once a long time ago when I was 8 or 9 years old. My Grandfather fixed it up with a touch of silicone seal from where he was working on a live well. The tip is still on there after all this time.

And to give you a hint of the time, without giving away my age (too much anyway), he bought this for me for my 2nd birthday. When my daughter turned 2 I passed it down to her. She used the heck out of it (had to change the gears out in the reels by then) and now it's in the "Gun Cabinet" (that has never held a gun, go figure, only rods in there). She's gone off to college and back again to get married next month (January). Long time temporary repair there.

Restoring that rod will never happen. It's got too many memories attached to it's nicks and scrapes along it's 3 ft length. And too many teeth marks in the handle.

By the way, the rod made it through the passage of time, the live well didn't. It finally finished off it's days as a turtle pond.

Cindy