I was wondering if roughing up the surface of smooth hard plastic w/ steel wool would significantly improve the adhesion? I am interest in any tips other people might have.
The short answer is YES that roughing it up does help adhesion but it will depend on the material. Acrylics are easy but something like delrin is so slick that most glues won’t hold
Like Nick said, some plastics the glue doesn’t bond to strongly, if at all. E.g. the plastic cap to seal the tube. Sticks a little, but not much.
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And to build on what people have said … sandpaper would be better than steel wool.
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Just my 2 cents, an epoxy might perform better. Superglue can cause many plastics to chemically degrade over a few weeks.
Source:
https://youtu.be/EeEhS3zmnDg?t=1341 (if it doesn’t start at 22:15 skip to that time)
What kind of plastic? There might be better options than CA glue.
As a pure guess, clear acrylic (making a ruler) to ABS plastic.
Not like you are going to exploit this tech, but the latest craze in adhesion enhancement involves bathing the surface in ions, first.
“Super Glue” will cause the acrylic to turn white (like a strong smoky haze).
This website has some good suggestions (near the bottom) on bonding acrylic to various other plastics.
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I am not worried about appearance, I just want a strong bond.