How-To: DIY Acrylic Cement

Science
How-To:  DIY Acrylic Cement

A commenter on my recent post about using cheap paint-stripper DCM to solvent-weld acrylic hipped me to this cool method of making thicker-bodied acrylic adhesives by dissolving acrylic chips in bulk acetone. I haven’t tried it myself, yet, but it seems like a fairly well-known method in the PC case-modder community, among others. And it’s a pretty sure bet that the more chips you add, the more “body” (viscosity) the resulting glue will have. Looking forward to experimenting with this. [Thanks, Kevin Gunn!]

6 thoughts on “How-To: DIY Acrylic Cement

  1. Christopher Morse says:

    I’ve done a similar thing with ABS using leftover bits from my 3D printer.  Works pretty well for making a more smooth surface.  Haven’t done much part joining but it should work.  I’ve got the acetone + ABS mixture about the consistency of maple syrup right now. 

  2. Njm Alhq says:

    Try humble old styrofoam in gasoline. Start with small qty until right consistency.  Don’t know how toxic it is, but when I was growing up in Africa we didn’t always have access to superglue, this was our fallback.  I think something interesting and weird happens if you do the same in a mixture of gasoline and kerosene.     

  3. cn says:

    Acetone don’t work well as a acrylic cement compared to Formaldehyde (Formalin). Formaldehyde makes an initial bond within 30 or 40 seconds strong enough to be able to move the piece and put some light pressures on it so that further bonding can be done. Full strength is gained in 24 hours.

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK