On 22/01/2009 19:20, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 2:08 PM, Chuck Guzis
<cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
> On 22 Jan 2009 at 13:50, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
MEK works with
some plastics and turns others to mush or has little
effect at all. Methylene chloride seems to be a better choice,
particularly for clear stock. Just repaired a pair of plastic-
handled scissors using it and you can't tell it was ever broken.
Yeah... I was just looking that up, since I wanted some plastic-weld
but don't like paying several dollars per oz at the hobby store... I
guess "proper" liquid polystyrene cement is Methylene Chloride, but
MEK is easy to get at the hardware store by the pint or larger
container.
MEK is used industrially for ABS and PVC, but not much else (it's used
in the printing industry as an ink remover and rubber restorer,
however). It's great on those, and much cheaper than methylene
chloride, but methylene chloride works on one or two plastics where MEK
doesn't. "clear stock" won't be ABS or PVC as neither can be
transparent; if MEK dissolves it (messily) it's probably polystyrene,
which methylene chloride works moderately well on. If you want to weld
acrylic (Perspex/Lexan/Plexiglass), though, professionals use chloroform.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York