c0brakai

Hi all, thought I would try to contribute something useful to the forum. I don't know about you, but I've always hated gluing new tires with super glue. I always manage to get glue on my wheel and tire sidewall (which turns white and looks like crap). I also find it hard to seat the bead exactly right and have the tire perfectly even all around.

Using knowledge from another unrelated project, I found that using a special epoxy sticks to both plastic and rubber! By using an epoxy, you can take your damn sweet time to push the bead down evenly, wipe up any excess, and get it just right while it cures over the next 24 hours.

The only thing you should do is prep the bead and rim by roughing it up with sandpaper or scotchbrite, then cleaning with alcohol.

The epoxy is called 3M DP190. It comes in clear and gray. About $20 per tube, and would be enough to glue 3 to 5 sets of four wheels depending on the scale we're talking. I just did my first 1/10th scale wheels and they are solid!

mattythegreat

iTrader: (10)

Have you had any issues so far with it not holding or coming apart? I would be concerned about weight transfer as well? How well do the tires seem balanced? Thanks for tip I always hate super gluing my tires too.

kevinatfms

iTrader: (10)

Nothing beats a good CA glue seal. Just gotta practice, practice, practice.

Also, on tires that are smaller, fit the bead accordingly and glue just the connection where the rim and tire meet. I have been doing this to 1/10 2wd buggy tires with amazing success. They balance really good this way also. Just gotta make sure to use the little tip that comes with the bottle so that you only use as much as you minimally need to hold that connection. Also keeps the bead cleaner for reuse of the wheels if you need them for a second round. Then glue at the bead.

ljh501

iTrader: (13)

Thanks for sharing something new! We need more of this!

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

I'm kinda cheap and I like to recycle my used wheels by soaking them in acetone to dissolve the CA and remount a fresh set of tires... will CA also dissolve the epoxy?

1/8 IC Fan

iTrader: (102)

Another thing, for racers, epoxy is additional weight and causes more imbalance. Also, CA glue comes in various thicknesses / viscosity and setting times, so one can get what works, guven most tire CA's now are formulated for rubber and plastics. Years ago Tamiya used double sided sticky tape for its Foam F1 tires, that worked well, but since has faded into obscurity.

props on trying something new though. Just as a reminder to those that may be tempted, if you get your epoxy mixture wrong it wont set right, and wont dry.

c0brakai

In my experience using this epoxy it's very solid. It's also flexible, so it stays adhered to the flexible rubber. As far as balance, I'm not too sure. I would think if you apply it evenly it should be pretty even. I can't say I've thrashed it enough to tell how it holds up long-term.

The bond that CA glue makes is very very good. When you glue next to the tire/rim, does it turn the side of the tire white when it dries? Maybe it's just the glue I'm using, but it always seems to do that and looks terrible!

Definitely not, the epoxy is permanent. This is a good point I didn't think of. In my case this is the last time I'll be using these rims, but if you wanted to re-use them then CA is the way to go.

I'm not sure how much the weight of the epoxy will affect things realistically, but it certainly must weigh more than a thin layer of CA.


Anyway, CA definitely has its advantages if you are skilled to do it right, otherwise this is another alternative that might also work for some people!

fredswain

iTrader: (1)

Worrying about the weight of the epoxy is drastically overthinking things.

kevinatfms

iTrader: (10)

Yes, it does leave the white residue if you add too much glue. I literally apply only the minimum to coat the rim/tire where it needs to hold. Use the smallest tip that comes with the CA glue and use as little as possible.

Youd be surprised at how much cured epoxy weighs. Let alone that once it is cured its not coming off without being cut off.

Shoe-goo was another option that people were using since it had some give to it when cured. Easily broken if needed and cutting it off the bead area of the wheels were easier than dried CA glue or epoxy.

ljl23

iTrader: (11)

I would think that for crawler wheels and tires (what he was showing) the heavier epoxy might work well to keep the weight down low. I like an idea to having an alternative to CA glue.

olds45512

iTrader: (5)

I glue my tires with gorilla super glue gel. It give you about a minute to get everything situated where you want it but it dries fast after that, I've glued tires at the track and ran on them 10 minutes later without issue.

Cain

iTrader: (294)

was curious how well the gorilla stuff works. There is this black super glue (Bob something) the LHS sells that others really like. It seems to do good, though, I like the clear stuff a tad better.

slick2500

iTrader: (1)

I hear many good things about the BSI 2000 glue. It is especially good for repairs to tires.

c0brakai

That could be really nice. All the super glues I've tried end up sticking instantly, so if you make a small mistake it's already stuck down.

ljh501

iTrader: (13)

Anyone ever use E6000? I have some of that lying around and I've been using it on more and more non-RC related things. Curious if anyone has tried this.

I remember seeing a post at some point about non-RC products used in RC but can't find it. This post would be a great addition.