UKC

I have 2 areas on my shoes where the top layer of rubber is coming away from the bottom. Will superglue stick them together or is there any danger of it making it worse by some sort of reaction with the rubber or existing adhesive?

In reply to antdav: Unless it's the most temporary of repairs, I wouldn't bother. Not the right glue for the job.

In reply to antdav: Recommend Shoegoo. Good luck.

In reply to antdav: or aquaseal. Superglue is brittle & cracks off . Don't know about seams. Dreadycraig had a post about shoe repair recently

In reply to antdav: agree with what the others have said, I tried it and it lasted around 2 weeks

In reply to antdav:

On the other hand, I have found that for sticking two pieces together it works exceptionally well. Those of a certain age may remember the first TV ads for Superglue, which involved a cut rubber belt being stuck back together so that a gymnast could then bounce upon it.

If any glue is exposed, that will crack off, but sandwiched between two layers of rubber it's absolutely solid

In reply to antdav: Cyanoacrylates (i.e. superglue) are generally a brittle adhesive. Great for certain applications but not this one.

An evo-stik type contact adhesive is probably the best bet and, as an engineer, the one I would go for as it remains flexible once it sets. Just make sure you follow the instructions to the letter.

To answer your specific question - it will stick, but it won't last long. Cyanoacrylates don't start a chemical reaction with the materials they bond, they just 'grab' the surface irregularities when they harden in the absence of air. Once the bond fails (which it will do after a short time flexing) you can pick it off with minimal damage to the surface and therefore not making it any worse than it was.

Hope this helps...

cheers all, i have and old style hardware shop in my town, hopefully they'll have something that stays flexible. Red Chili ignored my email, booo

In reply to antdav: The glue in bike puncture repair kits is designed to stick rubber to rubber. Works better than Evostik in my experience.

In reply to antdav:

Superglue, contrary to US propaganda, was originally dreamed up by a chemist in the UK when he wanted to stick rubber to metal for doing a lot of tensile testing so it works very well.

Unfortunately it's also brittle and not suitable for a flexible joint as has been said previously.

I believe most shoes are now stuck together with hot melt adhesive which is usually an epoxy so if you have a hot melt gun and a stick of glue to go with it then I'd give that a bash. If you don't then you might want to try a flexible araldite after having carefully prepared and cleaned the surfaces.

Good luck.