Perspex glue

[artie]

I have a small project coming up, which will entail making a 5 sided box out of perspex.

Wondering which glue to use.?

 

[novocaine]

acetone
offcuts of perspex (smaller the better, I usually use dust)
glass jar
put offcuts in jar
add acetone to cover.
put lid on jar
shake
leave
shake
leave
leave a day or so
job done.

 

[Chrispy]

Chloroform also welds perspex (Acrylic)

 

[Lons]

Exactly what novocaine and Chris said.

Bob

 

[Steve Maskery]

I didn't know that acetone works, I'll try that.
"Proper" industrial glue is perspex dissolved in chloroform or something similar.

When I were a lad, I was making a magic prop out of perspex and went to my local chemist to buy some chloroform, or trichloromethane.

"What's it for?"

I told him, but he told me that it was now illegal for him to sell it to me. Last week it was OK, this week it isn't.

"Oh", says I, "Does that include dichloromethane, too?"

"No", he says, "How much do you want?"

How one can be illegal and the other not is beyond me, they are very similar indeed.

I got a bottle of 100ml for 50p.

 

[Normancb]

If you don't want to make your own cement, do a search for "tensol cement".

Dichloromethane is a liver toxin and very volatile - be careful around it, it's not nice stuff.

 

[Bale]

+1 for Tensol, your local acrylic plastic stockist should have some, or find small quantities on ebay. Long time since I used it, but chloroform was OK for sticking face to face, not good for edge-glueing. Tensol will have gap-filling properties too; to use, it's very like plastic cement (think Airfix kits that some of us built as children). Chloroform is less viscous than water (I think). Certainly very runny.

Pete

 

[artie]

My first thought was to phone my perspex supplier, which I did. They recommended Tensol 12.

Upon reading the user guide, I found it must not be used with perspex.

Hence my enquiry on here.

I don't fancy making my own. It is just a small job.

Two 600 mm long by 200 mm wide by 140 mm high open top boxes.

They don't have to be perspex, but I have enough offcuts to do the job. I would buy ready made but can't find any.

The dimensions are a little flexible if anyone has any ideas.?

 

[dickm]

The solvent for plastic pipes/conduit will do the job.

 

[Lons]

hi Artie

Where did you read that tensol isn't suitable for Perspex? Tensol was / is a product produced by ICI and formulated specifically to bond cast acrylic and of course Perspex is an ICXI brand. The only problems you might have is if the acrylic you're using is extruded which can be prone to crazing.
I used to sell it 30 odd years ago as we were main distributors and the majority of our customers buying tensol were plastic fabricators and the sign trade.

I've used it for many projects including several aquariums.
cheers
Bob

 

[Lons]

The solvent for plastic pipes/conduit will do the job.

Have you actually tried that on acrylic Dick?
Solvent weld pipes are usually PVC or a modification of PVCu as far as I know as as the adhesive works by melting the material and cold welding it together it's unlikely that pvc cement will melt acrylic. Be very interesting and useful to know if it does!

Bob

 

[artie]

hi Artie

Where did you read that tensol isn't suitable for Perspex?

http://www.rapidonline.com/pdf/87-2330U.PDF


I tried to copy the relevant part but it's a PDF

 

[Bale]

Says in the first paragraph that it's for bonding acrylic sheet. Then it says "Tensol 12 must not be used with Perspex ME, SW or AG grades and is not suitable for laminating sheets" so if you steer clear of those grades and don't laminate sheets you will be fine. I used it for years in the Exhibition/Sign trade without any problems.

Pete

 

[Eric The Viking]

Tensol 12 must not be used with Perspex ME, SW or AG grades and is not suitable for laminating sheets.

I assume ME, SW and AG grades are Perspex for specific purposes, for example UV blocking or with some other special property. It makes sense in that context.

There is also a UV glue bonding/curing system, used by architectural modellers (a dying breed I'd guess) and display case makers. It has the same refractive index as clear Perspex.

Years ago, I needed a batch of equipment covers made up for trade shows, and this system was used (it's other useful property was that it made very few bubbles). The good joins were brilliant, and fairly tough, but very hard to achieve on complex shapes (the un-cured glue was runny and difficult to keep only where it was wanted). It was also horribly expensive to do as it needed a UV "pen" to cure the glue, which, IIRC, was several hundred quid.

I'd go for Tensol.

Incidentally, to those who've used Tensol before, does it come in a 'runny' form that will seep into cracks? I have a small but annoying crack in a motorbike windscreen I want to fix. It's not causing mechanical trouble, but it looks a lot worse than it is. The screen is heat-bent Perspex sheet.

E.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Nothing to do with glue, but I had a multitude of small cracks running from the bolt holes in a screen - I never filled or glued them, bit I stopped them running further by drilling small holes at the ends of all of them.

 

[Lons]

Eric
Tensol isn't thin enough for the crack though you could overfill and polish out. Chloroform or thin superglue will fix it. I'd put tape on the back side first to contain it. Just polish it with chrome polish if you don't have Perspex or plastic polish available. If you buy perspex polish there are 2 grades 1 & 2.
Bob

 

[artie]

I guess another phone call to my supplier, to verify the grade of perspex I have is necessary.

 

[dickm]

Have certainly used plumbing solvent to stick perspex, which it seemed to do OK, though it wasn't in a critical application. My guess is that most of the acrylics and the ?uPVC? of pipes are soluble in quite a lot of organic solvents, though to different degrees. I'll ask my daughter, who specialises in adhesives.

 

[Lons]

Have certainly used plumbing solvent to stick perspex, which it seemed to do OK, though it wasn't in a critical application. My guess is that most of the acrylics and the ?uPVC? of pipes are soluble in quite a lot of organic solvents, though to different degrees. I'll ask my daughter, who specialises in adhesives.

Thanks for that Dick, definitely interesting, it contradicts my experience in the plastics industry though that was over 30 years ago. I have disolved pvc with MEK but it would n't touch acrylic apart from marring the surface. I have several tubs of solvent weld from my business so will have a go. I still have a tin of Tensol as well if it hasn't solidified. :lol:

Nothing actually to stop anyone sticking acrylic with silicone or even some of the better liquid nails, polyuretane glue or epoxy but non will actually weld the two surfaces together.
and chlorofom and tensol can make a very neat almost transparent join which is why favoured by plastics fabricators, especially for display stands.

Bob

 

[dickm]

Asked the family expert, and she had to admit some uncertainty (they use mostly two-pack adhesives in her industry, for sticking stuff to windscreens etc.). She did say that PVC is the difficult one to solvent weld, and quoted a three-letter abbreviation for the solvent normally used, but I don't think it was MEK. Possibly methyl/ethyl somethingelse. She reckoned that almost any chlorinated hydrocarbon solvent should work with perspex, hence chloroform.