Attaching heavy items

[Mary Lever]

I have a heavy tile to attach to mountboard. What is it best to use? - heavy duty velcro so it can be removed if ever desired, aruldite (obviously non-reversible) or is there any other very strong glue that is recommended? Also, when attaching a painting on board to a piece of hardboard/MDF, what is generally recommended? Thanks.

[Jonny2morsos]

How about tile adhesive?

Not had many fall off the walls in our kitchen or bathrooms! It is also water based so reversible with care.

Obviously only taking about the tile here not the paintings.

[easypopsgcf]

A couple of blobs of silicon will do the tile, but i'd glue the ountboard to some mdf first (pva) to make it more rigid.
Pva wood glue is ideal for glueing canvas onto hardboard, a nice even thin coat then pop it on, ideally then squash in a press for a wee while and it'll be there for good. Obviously you would only glue it down if you have consent and its known to be pretty much worthless

[Mary Lever]

Thanks for that. Somone recommended to me bathroom sealant. Is that the same as 'silicone'? I thought the benefit of using that is that you can reverse it if necessary. Both objects I'm framing are of value and I would like to be able to reverse it. Thanks for the tip about sticking the mountboard to the MDF. Mary

[prospero]

Strictly speaking, no adhesive is truly reversable. You may be able to remove the tile later but some adhesive will remain on the tile, so technically you have 'altered' it. Another point is that no adhesive is truly permanent and sooner or later it will give up and the tile will drop off. Might be years, might be centuries but when it does the tile will probably smash to pieces.

You could fashion mechanical fixtures using plastic-covered copper wire. Some part of it will show though - it's a trade-off.

My preferred method would be to use the smallest moulding you can get, such as a 3/8" black cushion to hold the tile and fix this (with tiny screws) to a solid backing. OK, you can see the edges and it will cover a minute amount of the edge, but it will stay put.

If the customer insists, glue it. But warn them of the consequences and even get them to sign a waiver.