gluing '60s plastics

An awful lot! Actually, if you vcan find a solvent fo the plastic, one of the best ways to reapri it is to disolve the surface of the bereak ans weld the parts together. You can get substance called 'plastic weld' from good model shops. It's mostly dichloromethane (methylene chloride, CH_2Cl_2). If you can get some, first test the plastic by putting a drop on an inconspicuous part. If it goes sticky to the touch, it's disolving it. Then put the broken pieces together and run a bush dipped in the solvent along the cracks. It'll be drawn in in by cpillary action and will caus ethe parts to be wleded together. For soem repairs(but I suspect not i nthis case) you can make things stronger by puttign a piece of cotton fabric [1] on the back, 'painting' it with the solvent and forcing it into the softened plastic. [1] Either cut up an old shirt or ask wife/sister/mother/girfirend, etc if you're not sure what to use. I don;t know what the plastic involved is, of course. If it's a thermoset plastic, liek bakelite, then you won't find a solvent for it. Nor will you find oen for nylon or PTFE. For bakelite, I've found epxoy resin adhesives to be quite good. But almost noting sticks nylon or ptfe reliably. Oen thing to bear in mind is that this part broke for a reason. If it was becahse you dropped it, or knocked a heavy weight onto it, or somehting, that's OK. But if it ;just broke' then it's likely the plastic has deteriorated with time. In whcih case there's little point in sticking it, it'll just break again. In such cases I normally make a new part. SOmething like a platen know van't be too hard to machine... -tony