I need some clear acrylic glue for my design project at school, in my travels through the forum search and Google I have found Tensol Cement as a possible candidate. And it appears that unfortunately IPS Weld-on is not available in the UK. So, any other suggestions of glues that I could easily get in the England and that dry clear?
i would think any clear drying plastic cement should work just fine. Swing to your nearest hardware store and ask what they have.
Plastic adhesives come in two groups, Ones that dissolve the plastic surface to create a strong "solvent-welded" joint Ones that just hold onto any scratches on the plastic surface and vary from poor to excellent Tensol#174; is a solvent-welding type, "any clear drying plastic cement" ain't going to work unless it's a poxy resin.
hmm, then i stand corrected. Though i will say i've used plastic cement for small acrylic projects before and it worked just fine... i guess the bonds just didnt need to be that strong or maybe im just not remember correctly, it could have been apoxy i suppose
I glue acrylic sheets together all the time at work and we always use Tensol, so far I haven't come across anything else thats strong enough. You just have to make sure that your edges are highly polished and that you don't trap any air bubbles in the fillet of glue when you stick the parts together. I'd recommend a couple of test joins before you commit to the final join. One thing I did discover is that wood glue(which is basically PVA glue) will stick other materials to acrylic quite well. I recently made a large insulated door for a chilled glove box out of two sheets of acrylic and some expanded polystyrene. It stuck together really well, the only thing is that the glue dries to a translucent film although it didn't matter in this situation.
Another tip, is to get the surfaces very wet and put them together, this will then show you where air could be trapped during the glueing process. In the past i have used small amounts of acetone to bond acrylic together, and it results in a clear bond, but after a few months i found it turning yellow.. Dont dismiss are friend super glue, when bought by the bottle rather than tube it is very useable, bonds extremely well and when prepaired right can offer a clear bond.
Ok, thank you everyone for the advice and tips I assume that I need to use a syringe to apply the tensol?
Syringes work well. Don't leave the stuff in the syringe too long if it has a rubber plunger. It makes the plunger swell up.
