Tuesday, November 06, 2018

ABS glue of choice

Andy from the excellent Workshop Shed blog asks:

I was just reading about your boat building and realised you'd be a great person to quiz.

I've got a couple of ABS parts I've printed and wanted to fix them together.

What adhesive would you recommend?


Good question. ABS is a harder plastic than styrene so a more volatile solvent is required. I've tried several and find that Pheonix Precision Paints Superweld works best for me.

Applied with an old paintbrush, it seems to grab really quickly and harden fast. Other ABS glues are available, but this is cheap and very effective so it's the one I return to. Even the bottle shape is good, as the wide neck and fat base seem to prevent accidental knocking over, although having said that I'll probably do it next time I use the stuff...

4 comments:

Spitfire2865 said...

How does that compare to Plastiweld? That one says its good on ABS but Ive never tried it.

Christopher said...

C & L track-building components, e.g., chairs, used to be made of ABS and the go-to solvent was Butanone (AKA MEK I believe). (Not the same as Slater's Mek Pak!) DIY plastic pipe-weld would probably also work...

Phil Parker said...

I prefer it to Plastiweld. Nothing wrong with this, but it seems (to me) slightly smellier than the Pheonix version and not quite as quick acting.

Can't recommend pipe-weld, the stuff I've used seems very thick, fine for big pipes but a bit detail-malting for small stuff. Of course, there could be other types I've not encountered, it's not a material I use much.

Andy from Workshopshed said...

Thanks Phil, I'll give that a go.