A sticky trick or two......

[dkightley]

I've always been very conservative with the use of adhesives....PVA for gluing and amalgamating materials that get wet..eg paper, cardboard. And I've extensively used super glue for fixing PLA parts together. Contact adhesive for foam and material, etc. 5 or 20 min epoxy is also a favourite for almost everything!

This last week, I've tried a couple of things I've seen...but have been a little sceptical about.

The first is the use of baking powder to act as a filler with super glue. I had a small gap between 3D printed parts that I couldn't get to join at all....so I inserted a blob of super glue in the gap. Normally, It would never harden, dissipate and not make a join and glue anything but what you want together....but I sprinkled a tiny bit of baking powder over the glue-filled gap from all sides. After a couple of minutes, not only were the parts well and truly glued together, but I had to file the surplus "glued" powder down with a sharp file. Boy...it goes rock hard!!

The second new thing is the use of uv curing adhesive. Not the "pen" style applicator that has a single uv LED in one end and a raindrop sized glue dispenser container the other end.....but a 50cc bottle of Permabond UV620 and a nine-LED uv torch. And I'm very impressed. Dry assemble the joint, then knife on a few drops of glue with a scalpel. The glue sucked into the joint nicely. Then hold parts in position as necessary, and a five second exposure with the torch....and a solid joint. The only minus is that any cured adhesive...which is clear, btw...is very shiny! Not a problem if the finished part is to be painted.

[gbtrains]

Hi Doug

Sounds like you have done a great epic job.

any pics on this topic?

[dkightley]

I'm not in a position to take photos. I used both of these ideas putting together parts for Saltash...and the process usually involves two hands. And to take photos of this process can take from 3 to 4 hands....which unfortunately I don't have!!

So, sorry....no photos!

[gbtrains]

not a problem
I will try this may be on my Leeds Layout