Garland Gray II wrote:

My wife handed me a piece of her jewelry -- a square of ceramic or the
like-- from which the glued on eye had become detached. The old glue and
feels like silicone.

Well in this case, silicone is probably the correct adhesive. Assuming
the eye is metal, epoxy may well not survive the differential thermal
expansion & contraction between the metal and the ceramic. Hexane is
(or was a few years back, you never can be sure over here with the EU
and VOCs) one of the major constituants of Evostik adhesive remover.
Might be worth going to a store and looking at a can.

Remember even to get silicone to stick, its going to need to be
'waterbreak' clean. You also need a really strong clear electrical
grade silicone. Probably be able to get away with Servisol silicone
adhesive sealent, but you *might* need the Dow-Corning variety. You cant
get that stuff off clean glass even *with* a razor blade.

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & 32K emails -- NUL:
'Stingo' Albacore #1554 - 15' Early 60's, Uffa Fox designed,
All varnished hot moulded wooden racing dinghy.

Hexane is also known as napatha, lighter fluid. Don't know how well it
would work to clean up silicone residue, but is great for oily and
greasy parts. The only thing I know for sure that will remove silicone
residue is a strong base, like ammonia or lye.

Ian Malcolm wrote:
Garland Gray II wrote:

My wife handed me a piece of her jewelry -- a square of ceramic or the
like-- from which the glued on eye had become detached. The old glue
and feels like silicone.

Well in this case, silicone is probably the correct adhesive. Assuming
the eye is metal, epoxy may well not survive the differential thermal
expansion & contraction between the metal and the ceramic. Hexane is
(or was a few years back, you never can be sure over here with the EU
and VOCs) one of the major constituants of Evostik adhesive remover.
Might be worth going to a store and looking at a can.

Remember even to get silicone to stick, its going to need to be
'waterbreak' clean. You also need a really strong clear electrical
grade silicone. Probably be able to get away with Servisol silicone
adhesive sealent, but you *might* need the Dow-Corning variety. You cant
get that stuff off clean glass even *with* a razor blade.

If you're going to apply silicone over silicone, it should adhere
without problems, shouldn't it? It's when you try to use any other
adhesive that you get into trouble. IIRC, I've seen some information
about prepping and bonding with silicone adhesives on the Dow-Corning,
GE and 3M sites.