Glueing an aluminium mast...

[Iain C]

No, not quite as mad as the thread title suggests!

My Flying Fifteen has a Proctor Epsilon mast, which has a (factory fitted) external sleeve running from just above the heel to just below the spinnaker pole ring. It's supposed to beef it up a bit at deck level.

However it has come adrift slightly...I believe it was bonded on, however if there's a lot of mast bend on, there's a 2mm gap at the top, between the sleeve and the mast.

I need a glue, that's good at sticking ally to ally, that doesn't mind a little bit of movement. Bear in mind the rig bends a little bit depending on whether you are winding the kicker on hard, or the mast ram...it needs to be good enough in shear to actually be doing it's job, however have enough give to not fail the first time I wind the controls on hard.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

 

[Birdseye]

Many modern sports cars are made from rivetted and blued aluminium and indeed so are planes. the glues are epoxies but the issue might be that they need autoclaves. I cant give you any direct info on sources but have a google on the various Lotus car websites because those cars are glued foir sure

 

[TQA]

Either the epoxy that is sold to fix dinghies it does not go brittle but has some resiliance.

Or good old 3M 5200.

Either will do the job.