SpudFiles

For a science fair, i need to make an electrolysis cell. Soudium hydroxide is the electrolyte, and i have 4 galv. steel plates. To make the plates stay together I tried magnets with insulation (oxidized), Hotglue (dissolved), Tape ( softens), Legos, and many other things. I was wondering if hardware store epoxy will withstand the strong base. I heard epoxy is more heat and chemical resistant if its cured in higher then room tempeture environments. If this is true, would a toaster oven or a regular oven work? What is the sugensted temp?

wow you tries to hold steel plates together with legos?

I would say get them welded together if epoxying them doesn't work. Best to wait until JSR arrives, i'm sure he'll know something i don't.

Good Luck on your science fair project

I cant get them welded for 2 reasons : i dont have welder and they need to be insulated, otherwise short circuit. I was desperate, so i used legos to seperate the plates and rubberbanded it together =)

The better specialty Epoxies are formulated to work under higher heat conditions or exposure to chemicals anyway. Better to use one of them in place of curing a lesser Epoxy in a higher heat environment.
The PC brand has a variety of types.

Yup just get high quality epoxy, maybe marine epoxy. you shouldnt need special heating.

Marine epoxy is made to cure under-water... Regular 5 minute set/24 hour cure epoxy should work fine, but 60 minute set or more would probably be stronger...

Loctite sells some really nice epoxy rated for 180°C and it will cure at room temperature... Try looking in an adhesive store near you I'm not kidding, there are really adhesive stores

High quality not gonna happen =) My local dollar store has 30 min. set epoxy, ile try that.

One thing that you have to learn is that doing something half-assedly the first time generally results in having to do it again. A little bit of planning and care in construction results in a much better finished product.

McMaster sells all sorts of epoxy, and have delivery times of under 3 days in the lower 48 states.

You could also try JB-Weld, it would work very well. You would probably be able to find it at a local auto parts store for less than ten dollars.

He needs it to be insulated, JB Weld is conductive

McMaster is as expensive as hell... Try Lowes\Home Depot and find the strongest one... It should be about $3/4

McMaster is actually cheap if you need a lot of epoxy, but there minimum container is like 1.75oz, whereas normal epoxy is sold in about .85 fl oz.

Pieces of glass?Not much eats away at glass.

Is JB weld really conductive? Other similar use specialty Epoxies claim they are not. PC 7 etc.

JB weld is a conductive in the way that air is conductive, but even less so. Which is to say hardly at all. In conventional terms, it is an insulator, not a conductor.

I didn't think that j-b would be conductive- well everything is conductive but just how conductive is j-b?

Nova, my post somehow answered your questions exactly before you even posted them