8/13/15 10:33 AM

no foaming. On the cable use, it is important to remove all contaminants FWIW. I use acetone for this as stated...

8/13/15 2:29 PM

The handle ASSEMBLY of my battery-powered mower broke free from the steel-tube stub-handles due to internal busting up of the thru-standoffs that passed thru big holes in the stub handles.
It was at first difficult to imagine how to restore integrity to the failed-and-still-failing plastic structure!
What to do?
I unscrewed and removed the horizontally-split "A"-frame handle halves, inspected, drank beer, packed all the dead space between the ribbing with damp newspaper, then fabricated new metal standoffs that fit snugly in the holes in the stub handles, and found longer thru-screws to secure the standoffs inside the clam-shell halves of the handle assembly.

I then re-assembled all the switches, lights and lever parts and carefully saturated the inner surface cavities of both handle halves with Gorilla Glue, followed by a spritz of water from a mist-sprayer, to "activate" the foaming/curing action of the generous glue.
After quickly assembling the two halves about the stub handles, then fitting all the many screws, I didn't have to wait long to be entertained by the foaming glue slipping past all of the seams, and even past the screw/washer heads that secured the new metal standoff sleeves!
I wiped most of it off during the geyser phase which lasted only a few minutes, and it was cured hard within a few hours, ready for another season of ABUSE over the hilly/rocky terrain that gets manicured into a sprawling 2-season "golf course" of a neighborhood lawn.

Notice the tough foamed glue saturating every seam and crevice, totally integrating the structure internally (handle grip dead-man's switch now to stay ON forever), NEVER again to be disassembled.
Sometimes it is more satisfying to overdo something like this repair, and sometimes it's even practical. Not much left in the bottles (glue, beer) after this job!

8/13/15 4:22 PM

Gorilla CA and Gorilla glue are different products...

8/13/15 5:37 PM

I suspected that it wasn't CA that I was working with, no fumes!

I could only guess what the water-activation part is, or whether Gorilla Glue is perhaps some kind of acrylic or epoxy or whatever, but it seems to join things aggressively with what seems like the right amount of toughness, i.e. flexible strength and not too brittle, plus it's permeating quality.
It's fast set makes any project more fun.

Just don't get it on your skin. It won't want to come off.

8/14/15 5:45 AM

...that the foamed areas of the glue have no strength. Gorilla glue is designed to be used in very tight joints with heavy clamping pressure to prevent it from foaming. It is not meant to fill gaps. Read the bottle.

8/14/15 9:25 AM

I've used the stuff between flat surfaces that were not clamped at all, just had some incidental (gravity mostly) contact pressure and where the foaming glue issued heavily from the contact area.

The bond strength has been, to me, almost unbelieveable, even in those circumstances, and as in the pictures above, the "edge-contact" areas such as where the steel tubes enter the hollow, thin-walled handle assembly, end up with a nice radius of fairly dense glue.
I believe that the density/strength of the foamed and dried glue likely still at least exceeds the bond strength with these non-porous substrates.

All of the newspaper stuffing that I filled the casting cavities with in the molded handle halves surely also ended up with a very structural surface bearing against the metal handle stubs, as intended.

There was an eighth-inch gap at the end of both stub handles after even the original standoffs located the stub handles solidly within the handle assembly, which I believe was the design flaw that likely resulted in this failure, so I added thick 3/4" washers there to eliminate all of the gap between the handle ends and a thick inside wall within each half of the handle assembly. Impacts from pushing this very small-wheeled mower over tree roots and such will thus no longer stress the standoffs(!), which are now metal and secured with longer thru-screws (perhaps hard to see since their tips were sawn and filed away flush.

I was especially impressed when I tried to chip away some dried excess from the wholly unwashed and unprepared surface of the black metal handles, and noticed that this glue, perhaps by it's effervescent action, took a substantial bond to the dirty, somewhat oxidized (painted?) surface.

Seems versatile and strong, if quite messy. Go nuts with this stuff, but consider doing it outdoors!

8/14/15 10:11 AM

I used expanding foam filler insulation to make a sewing form for Elaine. Similarly to that gorilla stuff, urethane? Outside and 3 cans to fill between a tomato plant conical metal tree and the pallet wrap corset I wrapped her with then cut off and taped back together. It was one messy endeavour, but netted a custom form shaped perfectly to her.... shape...