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ssl-3today at 5:19 PM1 replyview on HN

I'm very impressed that they were able to use glue on PTFE for...approximately anything at all. That's impressive.

But I'd like to take this opportunity to present my semi-annual rant about hot glue (edit: from a hot glue gun), instead.

It's amazing stuff. It's similar to many other liquid adhesives in that you can stick things together with it (probably not PTFE, but...), and they stay pretty well stuck.

But it's got this really neat property that most other things lack: When used with non-porous surfaces, it's removable. A few drops of isopropyl alcohol will eek in between the glue and the surface it is stuck to. It stays solid, but basically just falls right off with no apparent mess.

...which makes it absolutely fantastic for temporary fixturing.

Like: Glue an accelerometer to the middle of the 3D printer bed for resonance tuning using a very thin layer of hot glue, and then just use a bit of isopropyl to take it off later. It's like it never happened.


Replies

bluGilltoday at 5:32 PM

There are many different hot glues, not all have that property.

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