Cement vs. Glue

Sematics?... or is that 'Cement-sticks' ?
If pressed, I'd yowl a bit and then say cement has a thicker 'glue line' than a glue...
That's my definition and I'm sticking to it. <groan>
Del

It's semantics. And that's the truth. Plus context.

Glue, Bond, Adhere, Stick, Attach, Cement, Laminate are verbs meaning, "to join".

Glue, adhesive and cement are also nouns.

We can use glue, adhesive and cement to join things together. Pick your verb.

To me, glue is a noun and bond is a verb. I bond things, using adhesive.

Glue works on wood and paper.

Glue, adhesive, cement. Any one will do.

Well, sort of, but when we talk about "the bond", isn't that a noun? The adhesion? The glue stick? The cement sidewalk, as an adjective, etc. "Glue this, please" where glue is a verb. Your "To me, glue is a noun and bond is a verb. I bond things, using adhesive" is open to many opinions, such as "to glue the shoe sole using the proper adhesive". It's really a case of the English language using the same word for many parts of speech, and the difference between non-technical vs. technical usage. Use the term "cement" to a mason, and he has a clear thought which may be completely different from your meaning.

Yes, It depends on the people in the conversation. And what they do for a living.

I worked in aerospace industry for 20 years and we had terms that were not in use by Joe six-pack. No one in my department ever said "glue", unless they were sticking two pieces of paper together.

As the learned cat said, it's semantics. Actually, the learned cat said "sematics", but maybe that was just a slip of the paw.

Del, there is also a school of thought that says "cement" is a solution of things like polymers (rubber cement, but not rubber glue). Glue is usually made as such, rather than just being a dissolved substance: Elmer's Glue (PVAc/PVOH), PU glues, etc. But the usage of both terms is thoroughly confused as we diversify our product lines, as in epoxy cement vs. epoxy glue. We have tried to evade the question by using the term Adhesives.

Glue is a bond used to adhere items together.

Cement is a binder used to encapsulate the items together with in it.

When cement is used to retain to items together as say bricks. Mortar is made of cement and fine sand. It is how the sand sets up(gets hard) in the cement in the roughness of the bricks surface that makes them adhere.

Glue can make a chemical bond or be mechanical as with the mortar.

As Del says it's all what you want to call it. Some companies inter-swap names for substances. I've also used cement that was close to a watery substance that melted acrylic together and cement that was so thick it had to be troweled on. Glues have ranged from plastic chemical fusing to hot glue that barely penetrates.

But then again I'm like Post Its, I don't stick to anything. (permanently)

I often asked the same question, On pipe cement the can states pipe cement but about every one refers to it as gluing the fitting together????

as far as i know glue bonds more on a molecular level while Cement bonds more using irregular surface structure (it grabs more like a claw the really bonding to the material)

Sorry, there is no bonding agent that shares electrons with the parent material.

Surface preparation and van der Waals forces allow irregular surface structure, on a microscopic (not molecular) level, to hold things together.

Solvents melt the parent material together, then evaporate. This may be confused with molecular bonding.

This is giving me a headache.

Thanks for the clarification

if you have a headache stop sniffing the glue

"But Mama, that's where the fun is".

Hi Quobaldt,

My simple answer is; as a joke "Spelling". but, seriously "Depending on Application" and how it works!.

Kind regards

Roman

In a traditional meaning cement is solid (powder)that needs to be mixed with water so that chemical reaction can start and the cement can "set in".

On the other hand glue binds the surfaces of objects together without addition of any other product.( water based or solvent based types)

Two components glues - better known as adhesives- rely on the chemical reaction between a resin and a hardner to form a bond.

Chuck Cowlagi

went-an'-go-checked ... webster weren't no he'p.

synonym for glue is 'cement'...

I wuz hopin to see a difference, as between "soap" and "detergent".

Sho 'nuff, we'll soon be to the point where you can use whutever wurd you want to say whutever you want.

I'ze willin to bet there ain't no sich thing as a "Honors English" class in high schools anymore. If'n there is, the kids are probably just LAUGHING at the teachers, after listening to today's broadcasters ... advertisers , news anchors , & journalists alike

...but that's another thread...

Wow! What a variation of interpretations!

Obviously 'cement' as a noun has two totally different meanings. One, as the binder in concrete, is a powder, while the others are all (that I can think of at the moment) liquids or gels. Oops, where does 'hot glue' fit into this picture?

I have no idea where my concepts originated, but I've always thought of glues as water-based, while to me, cements use some other solvent. As such, I've always thought of 'airplane glue' as a misnomer. It never did occur to me to 'sniff' the stuff, except as incidental to using it for building stuff. Again, 'hot glue' is clearly not water-based, so there goes my concept!

Clearly, this falls into the same category as 'pipe' and 'tube', from a while back...

If glue and sement is the same thing as most of you replied...then why do glue come in small little bottles & is useless on bricks and sement comes in 50kg bags &can't be used for scrapbooking...?