Adhering acrylic and wood?

I have a project I want to do that involves cutting out a piece of wood and a piece of acrylic, and gluing them on the short (1/8 inch) side. I know this is going to be tricky as the area for adhesion is so small, and I want it to be permanent, and professional looking (it’s going to be a pin). I had the idea of cutting a veneer backing of the total shape, and using that to add adhesion area, so that there is glue on the short side, but also on the entire back attaching to the veneer. Do you think this would work? Any other ideas of how to attach wood and acrylic on the short side? Thanks!

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In this thread I talk about some things I’ve done with acrylic, wood, and veneer…

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Any chance you could ‘inlay’ the acrylic? I have glued wood and acrylic together, but in a ‘butt’ type of joint…ie. short side of one up to the flat side of the other. I have done a few experiments doing inlay involving wood and acrylic…and as mentioned above, getting the kerf just right can take some time.

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That looks great! So you used just the adhesive that comes on the proofgrade veneer to hold everything in place?

I thought about that, but it would change the design a lot. I’m also looking at 1/16th inch wood as a possible backing, if the veneer is too flexible, but it would add a lot of bulk. It seems like most of the specialized acrylic (like glitter or marble effect) comes only in 1/8 inch thick, so it doesn’t leave a lot of room for adding bulk, as far as jewelry is concerned.

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Yes, although, as described, I compensated for kirf so the piece had a nice tight fit to begin with.

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How big is the piece? If its a pin, I’m assuming prob reasonably small? You could try using 1/8" acrylic and doing an engrave of the area to be occupied by the wood, removing 1/16" (basically laser milling it down) and then gluing the wood piece down on top of the acrylic in the engraved area. Your total thickness would be 1/8" and the back would be a very clean looking solid acrylic. It would probably take some experimenting with power and a couple of passes. Depends how many of them you want to make too, this wouldn’t be a super-fast process (engrave + cuts vs just cuts). You could also do the reverse and engrave the wood down, but as you said there’s less options in 1/16" acrylic out there.

Another option (depending on the design of course) could be to cut an ultra-thin border out of acrylic that everything would fit inside of so you’d have adhesive around the whole thing holding it together.

Thanks! I was wondering if milling down the acrylic and placing thinner wood on top would be possible. I think I’ll have t o experiment to see if I can get that to work, as I think that would look the best in the end, if it comes out cleanly. Otherwise I may try the acrylic border around everything, and see how it looks.

For sure. Good luck and I’d love to see where it ends up!

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maybe helpful?
https://www.hunker.com/12344930/how-to-glue-acrylic-to-wood

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I had success with E6000 and a toothpick to control glue application

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And did you find the bond stayed strong even if applying pressure (purposely trying to snap it)? I just got some e6000 but have never used it before.

You need to let it cure for 24 hours but the bond is strong for what I needed it for (lapel pins, Christmas ornaments)

I have tried to use pliers and stuff to pull it off (that’s when I realized the 24 cure time was important). I never reamed on it as my test was for my application. I suggest to try a pull test as it sounds your needs are much heavier then mine

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