Aluminum & brass mate together

[Hexhead]

I make exotic wooden pens. I thought of making one out of aluminum and add some brass highlites like a brass ban. Any suggestions of attaching these two metals together. Glue?

[tryp]

If you can stand having something you make held together with glue, it would be the easiest way to do it, no worrying about precise fits etc. Use epoxy it will stick em together. Another way would be to make it a shrink fit, so the brass band almost fits on the pen body with less than a thou interference, slip the band onto the shaft after heating the band and freezing the body, since aluminum expands faster than brass it will stay like that forever.

This is all theoretical though as I have never done it.

[Hexhead]

My whole lifes a theory, I wonder if the surfaces need to be slightly rough or machined ok if glued, thanks

[Your Old Dog]

I would use 5 minute epoxy. $1000,00 custom handmade knives have there handles held on with this technique. Use a pit of lamp black if the glue is gonna show and you'd prefer it to be black. 5 minute epoxy does not hardern brittle but rather has some give to it so a sharp rap from falling on the concrete floor wont' likely loosen it.

[kf1002002]

It's very important to have both surfaces absolutely clean to get epoxy to stick with maximum strength. I use several wipes with clean, virgin acetone then don't even touch near it with your finger. The oil in you skin can crawl over the surface.

Ken

[Tinkerer]

We'er talking metals here.... how bout some Loktite. No muss no fuss. :D

[jburstein]

Loctite 325 structural adhesive when used as directed is an excellent method for bonding two metals together. It's probably overkill for your application, but the stuff does work quite nicely.

-Justin