I'm trying to work out a good way to make some kind of either tail drag stabilized slug load (a la Longbow's fascinating hot glue screwed to a Lee slug), or Ajays simpler, but presumably effective "non-discarding sabot". I like the idea of gluing the slug into a standard wad and calling it good enough. But I've tried JB Weld, regular 2 part epoxy, Shoe Goo, and RTV, and none of them have a really good bond with the wad. I was shocked, on this last batch with RTV, that when I squeezed it on the sides, you can literally see the RTV pop off of the wad. Maybe it doesn't matter--it's possible that the bond, while not very strong, is strong enough.
From what I have been able to gather, modern plastic wads are made of (biodegradable) polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). Is there a good adhesive for that? (something that doesn't require any weird treatment like plasma etching)? From some reading, DAP makes a product called "Rapid Fuse", claiming it's for "hard to glue plastics"--but with the variability in plastics, I'm not really sure what that means either!
Maybe there is a way to pre-treat the wad with something, that woud allow standard epoxy to bite into it? Or maybe you could drill tiny holes in the base of the shotcup so there could be a good mechanical bond between the wad and the slug?
I'm also thinking maybe the best way would be to get unslit wads from BPI, cut them down the the proper length, and at least not have any chance that the high wind drag would grab the petals and pull the wad loose.
Sorry for all the questions, I'm just curious if anyone had worked out a good method to really weld things to wads. I'm not sure what sorts of G-forces these things experience, but going from 0 to 1200FPS over 20" of barrel, it's a pretty brutal environment.