Poor Glue Adhesion

[LesWurse]

We are having periodic trouble getting 3-4 ounce upholstery leather uniformly glued to a curved polyurethane surface. Ambient temperature is 65-67 degrees F.  Our leather/adhesives supplier says Masters All Purpose Cement is the best adhesive they have for this purpose. Does anybody know of a better adhesive for this kind of application ?

[Northmount]

Are you gluing to a smooth shiny surface?  Most glues/contact cements don't adhere well to such surfaces.  Smooth surfaces need to be roughened up to provide a "tooth" for the glue to hang onto.  I've used water-based contact cement to cement kydex (smooth) to leather.  Just roughened it up and have had no problems.  Other solvent based contact cements work well too.

Tom

[LesWurse]

Thanks Tom. Our leather workers have been reluctant to rough up the smooth surface very much for fear it will reflect through the thin leather covering. I think we'll have to rough it up a little more - it is better than bringing the product back and tearing the leather off.

[Northmount]

7 hours ago, LesWurse said:

Thanks Tom. Our leather workers have been reluctant to rough up the smooth surface very much for fear it will reflect through the thin leather covering. I think we'll have to rough it up a little more - it is better than bringing the product back and tearing the leather off.

100 grit sand paper will work.  Doesn't make deep gouges, so should not show through thin leather.  Just needs to get rid of the real smooth/glossy surface.

Tom

[Tugadude]

There are also primers, or adhesion promoters that might work.  These are commonly used in construction environments.  I would ask your supplier if they have any experience with primers.

[Carson]

BARGE CEMENT 

[Mokerson]

17 hours ago, LesWurse said:

We are having periodic trouble getting 3-4 ounce upholstery leather uniformly glued to a curved polyurethane surface. Ambient temperature is 65-67 degrees F.  Our leather/adhesives supplier says Masters All Purpose Cement is the best adhesive they have for this purpose. Does anybody know of a better adhesive for this kind of application ?

Les,

As Tom said a little sand paper will do the trick and if you are worried about the surface transferring through a thinner hide you can easily go up to a 180 or 220 and still get the same results, or add a thin (i.e. split) layer of Dacron before putting the leather down.  We did over a thousand chairs for a hotel many years ago.  The surface that we were upholstering had a thick poly finish on it.  We hit the whole thing with an even 220 grit scuff job and the adhesive locked on, no worries, no service calls - that was almost ten years ago.  We have since done the restaurants and bars throughout the hotel so plenty of opportunity to get complaints on failed adhesive.

 

 

[LesWurse]

5 hours ago, Mokerson said:

Les,

As Tom said a little sand paper will do the trick and if you are worried about the surface transferring through a thinner hide you can easily go up to a 180 or 220 and still get the same results, or add a thin (i.e. split) layer of Dacron before putting the leather down.  We did over a thousand chairs for a hotel many years ago.  The surface that we were upholstering had a thick poly finish on it.  We hit the whole thing with an even 220 grit scuff job and the adhesive locked on, no worries, no service calls - that was almost ten years ago.  We have since done the restaurants and bars throughout the hotel so plenty of opportunity to get complaints on failed adhesive.

 

 

 

Thanks all for your suggestions. We're going to try them out in some trials and see what works out the best.