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Help Needed--how To Glue "unglueable" Plastic?


David Hingtgen

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Not a model, but I have a plastic tab that snapped off something and it is absolutely impervious to everything I have---standard styrene cement, Plastruct's solvent, superglue. Will epoxy hold at all? Does JB Weld work in situations like that?

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Get some steel antenna wire that they use in RC cars and use it to reenforce the part then secure it with zapAgap. see if you can rough up the mating surface too. I have done this on my RC kits and the part seldom breaks again.

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If it's a thermoset plastic then you're pretty well stuffed. Epoxy & super glue are a waste of time and you'll only end up with a big mess.

You could try ether. It acts a solvent for some of the more tougher plastics but be careful using it.

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I do believe it's thermoset---Plastruct can at least have SOME effect on most anything, but not this--it was like using water. The wire might work, but actually I found out tonight that the loss of the tab is inconsequential---it doesn't do anything other than break as far as I can tell...

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I do believe it's thermoset---Plastruct can at least have SOME effect on most anything, but not this--it was like using water.  The wire might work, but actually I found out tonight that the loss of the tab is inconsequential---it doesn't do anything other than break as far as I can tell...

411358[/snapback]

Must have been designed by the military ;)

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My dad just died so I'm kinda out of it but if you pm me in a week or so...

I have a 2 part epoxy compound we use for fixing cracks in concrete pools.

I have yet to find something it won't stick to. The problem is it is often harder than the item it is applied to so finishing might be a pain in the a$$. Case in point... We were refurbing a residential inground and when using a core drill to reset the handrail we cut through a return line. Patched it with said substance, but not properly. As such I had to use a jackhammer to remove the patch and replumb. Chipping hammer went through the concrete just fine but didn't scratch the epoxy compound! I've been stockpiling some of the stuff to use for recasting for when I finally get around to casting stuff. Yeah... I'm an idiot but I can't help but think resin ve armor that is stronger than kevlar could be cool :rolleyes:

granted I will have to melt the molds off it and hope it needs little finishing.

Have you tried bondo?

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PP (polypro.) is not a thermo set, it can be heated and melted together. if it is PP it will feel waxy and maybe even have a thin film on the outside..... old tupperware is PP

Katana, Sorry to hear about your dad :(

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Kanata, my condolences about our dad. That's really rough.

David, dude what is it you've got that's broke anyhow? It almost sounds like one of the newer industrial injection molding resins. Not like what we use. - MT

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What type of plastic snaps along an incredibly clean line?  It's like glass-smooth on both sides.  No tears/jags/peeling/bending.

412011[/snapback]

Sounds like the same kind of plastic that they used for the xbox's headset hinge. I don't have an answer, but I tried gorilla glue and it didn't help. :/

kanata, I'm sorry to hear about your father. You and your family have my condolences. :(

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What it actually is, is a tab from the inner liner of my car's glovebox. It seems to have no purpose other than to snap when you take the the part the glovebox attaches to off, when you replace the air conditioner's fan. (Annoyingly I found you can EASILY bend it out of the way to remove it without snapping, but you can only see that it's possible if you're upside down laying on your back on the passenger seat's floor, looking up from below the dash)

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I used to work in rapid protoyping and we did a lot of work for the automotive industry. We used to use this stuff all the time and, used properly, there wasn't anything that it wouldn't hold. I don't know if it's available through retail, but you could always check it out. It is a urethane structral adhesive, for binding plastic, SMC panels, meatals, fiberglass, and wood. As always it is best to sand, or otherwise scuff-up both of the mating surfaces to give the stuff something to bite into.

Good Luck!post-2604-1151680583_thumb.jpg If you can't find this stuff you could try contacting Ashland Chemical, the manufacturer and see if they have any suggestions.

Edited by Chas
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