Hi,
Trying to repair sports shoes. You know that pesky little rubber toe guard that works loose way before the shoes are otherwise dead. Need to glue it back down.
Glued it down once with epoxy. Worked fine, but epoxy dries very stift, no flexibility whatsoever.
I need something or I’ll have to throw my shoes away. And, in the land of “no size 13,” that would be a problem.
All “sticky” suggestions welcome.
Seeker4
3M 5200 polyurethane caulking. Known to many in the boat repair trade as “3M 52 million” because of it’s strength.
Sorry, but it might be easier to get new shoes than to source this locally! Any West Marine in the states would have it… in several colors: Mahogany, black, white.
Jamestown distributors has a description in their catalogue here
jamestowndistributors.com/fi … lDrill;654
I’ve got some glue that would do that. I’ll try to find out the name. The secret with rubbery glue though is to apply it thinly to each surface and let it get a good grip, then hold the two sides together once and only once the glue is tacky. Otherwise it will be absorbed into one side of the join but not the other.
Also note that in humid places, allow MUCH more time for the glue to dry, like a day or two.
I think you’re referring to contact cement
Who? Me?
Why of course, yes.
Yes who?
Only joking. Of course it could be contact cement. That might be what I have. After it dries is it like rubber? Sort of amber colour (translucent too).
I’ve always hated how they use “cement” like that. Always makes me think of something particularly inflexible.
I don’t think contact cement has enough sack to do a good job on something like a shoe, where the glue joint will be constantly working when the shoe is being worn, but at least contact cement is easy to source and will be much cheaper than a polyurethane product.
Considering that you’ll only need a tiny amount of the stuff to fix your shoe, you might try to bum a small amount of trim adhesive from an autobody shop. I forget what the 3M name/number is for the stuff now, but a while back it was casually known as “ape snot”. Good, sticky, flexible stuff.
You could be right. Failing all else though, let me know, seeker4, and I’ll tell you one I’ve got. Seems pretty strong.
In the land of the long white cloud, that glue is contact adhesive, a common brand is ‘ADOS’.
I have seen others produced by Bostick and 3M etc. Some come in a small can, others in a tube.
But, if it was me, I’d take it to a pro repair dude. In Nankan, there is a guy who operates out the back of a van and he is really good. Probably cheaper than finding your own glue too.
I happened to stumble upon this rather interesting webpage (with links to other interesting pages) in the interweb while doing research for this thread.
I think in the Breeze center there is a shoe repair place, but i can’t remember for sure
I use contact cement, which is sold locally as 強力膠 qiang2 li4 jiao1, if I’m not mistaken. You can buy it in small tubes or in small (1/2 pint?) cans. I think Nan Pao resins makes it, and the packaging is yellow and red. You can get it in any hardware shop, or at stores like B&Q.
EDIT: no, I guess it’s KS Bond:
Just spread it very thinly and evenly, let it dry (I’m impatient, and use a hair dryer), then press the two parts together very, very, very hard. Don’t get it on your hands; I spread out newspaper under the item, and use bits of cardboard, q-tips, etc. to apply it and wipe off excess; be sure to reseal the can tightly.
You all have been busy. Fantastic! That’s what I love about Forumosa.
Sounds perfect. Too bad it’s 12,000 miles away. 
P.S. - West Marine is a cool store, isn’t it? A dream of mine would be to have enough money to hang out there without being ejected for vagrancy.
There’s also a product in the States for woodworking called “Gorilla Glue”. Supposedly very strong … hence the name.
[quote=“plotch”]I don’t think contact cement has enough sack to do a good job on something like a shoe, where the glue joint will be constantly working when the shoe is being worn
[/quote]
That was my first thought when I read Irishstu’s post. But, maybe I’m thinking of rubber cement. We used that stuff in school to stick art projects together. In the vernacular of the thread, it has no “sack” at all.
So, are contact cement and rubber cement and adhesive cement the same things? I don’t think so. RC only has one step - 1. Gob it on. AC sounds like another name for CC. ??
(EDIT: Contact cement and adhesive cement are the same thing.)
Yeah, please tell me what it is.
EDIT: BTW, the link for How Stuff Works is great. I’ve always loved that website. The extra links on the bottom of the page, especially the “This-to-That Glue Guide,” are very useful. I now know more about super glue than any normal human should.
Do repair dudes glue sports shoes? Wow, they must be branching out. Diversifying, as it were! I thought they only sewed and nailed with genuine parts of dead animals.
Great post.
But … the $64,000 question is … when CC dries, is it flexible?
I never had a problem hanging out at our local West Marine, but then again that’s probably because it was in laid-back Vermont.
52 million or something similar might be in a location near you, if you know what to ask for, and “just a little dab will do ya” for the job in mind. You might be able to grab a dab from a local yacht-building establishment. Heck, just bring the shoe with you. As long as it’s polyurethane-based, it should work. The same goes with auto-trim adhesive, again, similar stuff. “extremely permanent” or even “wicked permanent” suffices to decribe it.
Also called “poly glue” by some. What gorilla glue and stuff like 5200 have in common is that they are both polyurethane-based. However, I don’t think you want to use poly-glue because it expands and foams as it cures, so you won’t get a thin glue line. Useful for some applications where you need gap filling, but it also makes a mess, and by so doing creates a nuisance.
One more thing: I’ll back up my argument that contact cement doesn’t have enough sack by sharing this anecdote. I once glued a co-worker’s wooden toolbox to the ceiling with 5200: can’t do that with contact cement, for sure. He had to destroy the lid to get it down from there!
By the way, I also think the Howstuffworks site is great. My uncle the rocket scientist even has it linked to his website… quite an endorsement IMHO.
Good luck S4…I’m equally glad to be of service, or to be a font of useless and arcane knowledge. 
Sounds perfect. Too bad it’s 12,000 miles away. [/quote]
B&Q sells various kinds of caulk; you might try there.
I think there are different kinds; the stuff from school is weak, and cleans up easily by rubbing. Other more professional kinds (often called craftsman’s cement, and used to join two layers of leather, for example) are quite strong, waterproof, and hard to clean up. Both kinds remain flexible, yes. That’s why leatherworkers use it. I do recommend you try this first, as it’s inexpensive, versatile, and widely available.
That works too, if you find a cooperative one willing to do a small repair like that, although I don’t think it’s their standard line of work, and some may refuse; they have cement as well as nails, and they can put it in a vise to join the two pieces with a lot of force, which creates a strong bond; in some situations they will hammer it instead, to the same effect.
I concur with DB. The only point I would add is to make sure the two surfaces to be joined are really clean. Small point, but it’s often negelcted and can make a huge difference in the result.
I second that. Use soap, scrub it, degrease it, and dry it really well before applying. And when joining the parts, use maximal pressure (a vise, if possible, but if not, squeeze together as hard as you can for a minute or two) and you’ll get the best bond.
OK, for sake of convenience, I tried the contact cement solution first. Found some in a hardware store in a little tube under the brand “Nan Pao Bond” (green, white, and red box).
Question: What is the best amount of time for the bonding parts to remain under pressure, like in a vise or under weights, before releasing the pressure and using the items normally?
Ooops, I forgot to tell you the brand I used. It’s called C-Y, but I reckon it’s the same as most others.
I would recommend an overnighter (24 hours).