Methyl ethyl ketone for acylic glue?

[BonsaiNut]

Anyone use 100% MEK for bonding acrylic?

[turtlespd]

MEk i belive is is a hardner and cannot b e used to bond...i havent tried it but i wouldnt recomend it.

[BonsaiNut]

I have a long history of using MEK for gluing plastics together - in my opinion it is the best glue for plastic models (airplanes, etc) with the only reservations being the odor and high flammability. It is certainly a solvent for some plastics - I just don't know how it would work on acrylic.

[H20ENG]

My guess is it would evaporate too fast, and not provide a good melt, like the methylene chloride based glues.
I tried acetone long ago, but had this problem.
Chris

[Acrylics]

Originally posted by BonsaiNut
Anyone use 100% MEK for bonding acrylic? MEK will work, just not real well. IIRC it's the main ingredient in Weld-on 1802 which is used to glue acrylic to PVC, ABS, styrene.
BTW, it does work well on models - they're usually made of styrene.
I'm still debating whether it's as good as toluene though but that's a differnt topic :)

HTH,
James

[justgettinstarted]

MEK will work, just not real well.

Methyl Ethyl ketone and acetone are the same thing except acetone according to this nomenclature would be methyl methyl ketone so only different by 1 ch2 unit

MEK= CH3CH2C=OCH3
Acetone= CH3C=OCH3

I'm still debating whether it's as good as toluene though but that's a differnt topic

MMM toluene smells good! hehe... i think some others that are commonly use are xylene (toluene + 1 more methyl group)

I think the stuff for PVC also has some ethers in it as well...

[Acrylics]

Originally posted by justgettinstarted
I think the stuff for PVC also has some ethers in it as well... If you're referring to tetrahydrafuran, it's not in the 1802, just MEK and acrylic resin (just checked). THF is in 2007, and PVC pipe cement usually has THF & MEK as the primary active ingredients. Generally speaking, ethers don't work well at all on acrylic - end up just stressing the material without actually breaking it down. Work great on some other plastics though, butyrate, styrene, polycarbonate, PVC, ABS, PETG, and the list goes on.
I agree with ya on the toluene :)
I wonder what the lab supply house thinks of me when I buy my solvents...THF, Toluene, Chloroform, etc...

James

[GACDIVER]

I have memories of a 5 hour organic chem lab where we used MEK as a solvent. At one point I had a moment of clairity hit me as I looked accross the bench at my lab partner and professor and exclaimed in a voice of reason, "were stoned", and then went back to playing with my kimbal kit. So if all else fails you can get wicked ripped on the stuff. I dont know if the headache that I had the whole night was worth it but that lab sure went by fast!!!

Out,

Sean

[adam_not4u]

Havn't tried the MEK but weld-on works so well I wouldn't go another way.

[justgettinstarted]

james,

they must think you are trying to start up your own meth lab ;) HAHA

[BonsaiNut]

The nice thing about MEK is that you can buy it by the gallon at Home Depot. Weld-On is harder to come by :)

But I found some Weld-On 4 so no worries :) Now I am fabricating my weir comb jig and I'll be in overflow heaven. :)