From time to time, the topic of how to re-attach loose valve bases crops up, often with comments on what not to use, rather than what works best. The issue is that as the glass heats up, it expands and with some adhesives, notably super-glue, it's claimed that the glass can crack due to the rigidity of the bond.
I've converted quite a lot of NOS EBL1s to EBL31s (electrically identical apart from the bases and top caps) for use in Ekco A22s, by removing the side contact base and 3/8" top cap and fixing an octal base and 1/4" top cap. To do that I've used two-part epoxy known as 'Super Steel' which sets rock had and it's never posed a problem. After all, the original adhesive used by valve manufacturers also set rock solid. That cement consisted of shellac, wood flour, stone dust and other ingredients. (It can be dissolved with meths, known outside the UK as 'de-natured alcohol').
A professional woodturner (Emma Cook, known as 'The Tiny Turner' as she's just 4' 10" tall), recently demonstrated at our woodturning club. The item she made consisted of glass bauble with wooden finials top and bottom. The glass globe was about 75mm diameter, illuminated internally by an LED 'string'.
The relevance to this thread is that she'd tried a range of adhesives to fix the wooden finials to the glass globe, the most obvious of which was 2-part epoxy glues such as Araldite. She discovered that due to the expansion and contraction of the wood, which occurs naturally, the rigidity of the adhesive resulted in the glass cracking.
She did a lot of research and discovered that the best glue for this purpose - which has completely eliminated cracking - is 'Serious Glue' by Evo-Stik, which dries transparent and as it cures, forms an elastic rubber bond. It's available in 33 gram tubes and can be bought at Halfords, than it costs half as much again as on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/EvoStik-663...96492859&psc=1
Here's a quote from the maker's description:
"High performance, single component, moisture curing, Modified Silane (MS) Polymer based adhesive. Will bond most surfaces even if both are impervious. Will bond damp surfaces and may even be used underwater. It has a low odour and cures to form an elastic rubber, with almost no shrinkage and low hazard bonds to most surfaces quickly".
End quote.
Below is a picture of the glass/wood baubles and the glue.
Hope that might be of interest, though I guess it risks sparking off a 'beauty parade' of the most efficacious glues!