[sdiy] <OT> Job status, plastic repair

[Tom Arnold]

On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 04:32:02PM -0700, Barry Klein wrote:
> What do you guys recommend for a plastic glue for these?  I never have had 
> any luck with plastic glues or epoxies.  None of them actually melt the 
> plastic and form a bond.

Is there a plastic ID number stamped anywhere?  Like one of the recycle
numbers?  That can help.

If its a long-chain plastic like HDPE and its ilk, they are a real bear to
glue.  You can try TAP Plastics' Poly-Weld adhesive.  It requires you heat
the surface first to open up some chemical bonds and then glue it with a
two-part epoxy looking stuff.  I've used it and managed to glue the
impossible ( UHMWPE, which is one step from Teflon ) quite nicely but it was
fiddly.

The glue from TAP plastics is far better then model glue which has been made
Kid-Safe over the years.  The Acrylic glue they sell in the red squeeze tube
in particular works well with ABS, and will turn a Testor model into a
Horrow Show creature in about 2 seconds.  models tend to be made from a soft
easily chemically meltable plastic...

Its kinda a crap-shoot figuring out which glue will work without knowing which 
plastic they used, but I bet its either an ABS family or a polyethylene
family. 

Maybe Alesis would know what plastic they used?  Its a long shot but with
that information you can target the proper glue.

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