ThinkGeek is now selling “Wire Glue,” a conductive adhesive made with micro-carbons. They’re selling a .3 oz bottle for $4. I like what BotJunkie said about it:
It looks like a neat product, and I’m sure it works well, but if you’re thinking of getting this rather than learning how to solder… You should just learn how to solder. It’s cheap, it’s fun, and you get to melt metal and make stuff. Give it a shot, and then after you burn yourself, you can go ahead and buy the glue without feeling guilty.
32 thoughts on “Wire Glue, now made with Buckyballs!”
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Interesting new product, but where’s the current limiting diode in this circuit? That LED won’t last as long without one.
I think you mean a current-limiting resistor, but yes, there should be one.
Now, I don’t mind soldering, so don’t get me wrong, as far as this product is concernced I have to say – it’s about time.
this is great. goes nicely whit paper PCB´s:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnny/1537270922
Wow, easy surface mounting for everyone ?
there are times and places where soldering isn’t an option, and this could be a great solution for them. it’s not going to replace soldering, but a ball peen hammer doesn’t replace a framing hammer either. right tool for right job.
Wire-wrapping is a lost art, isn’t it?
No wire wrapping is not a lost art.
The control system for our power station has all the field devices wire wrapped at the back of the programmable logic controller. THere is thounds and thousands of them.
google Siemens T3000 control system.
We use an automatic wire wrap gun to give a reliable connection
.3 oz, not .03 oz.
Oops. Yes. Thanks. Typo corrected.
DO WANT.
And considering you can get liquid electrical tape too:
http://www.starbrite.com/productdetail.cfm?ID=1081&ProductCat=Home%20Care&ProductSCat=Liquid%20Electric%20Tape%20(Home)&ProductSSCat=
(I last bought it at my local Ace Hardware.)
I’ll never burn my self soldering again.
I’ve had this exact wire glue for almost 2 years now and its not that great. I used it for surface mounting some luxeon rebel led’s. It’s not that strong of a bond and the resistance is relatively high (0.5-5 ohms) even for small connections
Is this stuff really made with buckyballs? The ThinkGeek site doesn’t say that. They mention that they like buckyballs, and they say that the glue is made with “microcarbon technology”, but they don’t say that the glue is made from fullerenes. It’s probably just graphite.
I doubt it’s actually using fullerenes. I was just trying to emulate breathless ad copy in the headline.
All I can find online is that it uses microcabon technology. I bet you’re right. It’s probably just a base of graphite. I also wonder how strong it is and how conductive.
This stuff ain’t great. You have to mix it all the time to get a useful consistency, and it dries very brittle. The connections are far more fragile than a solder joint. I’ve used it to make connections to (heat sensitive) flex circuits, with a drop of epoxy over the top for strain relief. Works, but probably best to use conductive epoxy in the first place!
It doesnt need a resistor because apparently all of this stuff has very high resistance. Ive been looking into this and other stuff to make smd possible without a toaster oven etc. Even just to make shields for smd ic’s butit looks like the resistance is way too high. S*cks because i really want to do smd (getting hard to even buy nonsmd) but what a long, giant PITA process! And if you screw up.. start all over again *sigh*