What do you guys use to glue together your parts?

I generally print in ABS, PLA and HIPS. I was wondering if there is a specific glue that bonds the best?

Thanks.

For ABS, you can brush a tiny bit of acetone on the parts and press them together. As long as you’re not expecting a super strong bond, I’ve found this works fairly well.

What about a tight secure bond?

You might check out the acrylic cement/solvent that will help clear out PLA from nozzles mentioned elsewhere in the forum. I forget the name for it.

Plastruct Plasti weld for ABS. http://www.plastruct.com/Pages/CementGuide.html sometimes supplemented with epoxy or CA glue depending on the application. I also use Squadron white or green modeling putty to fill in surface imperfections.

I’ve also used this stuff for PLA, it gives a pretty good bond as long as there aren’t gaps between parts.

I like to glue ABS by making an ABS-based glue. I mix scraps of ABS with acetone in an eye dropper and leave overnight. It makes a gummy liquid that welds ABS together. I build robots that need to be strong. Never had a failure.

Fred

I use friction welding. Short piece of filament in a dremel, boom.

Dissolve bits of ABS filament into a bottle of Acetone to make ABS glue. The stuff is really strong. You can’t just use straight acetone on the part and expect them to stick well from my experiences.

If you need filler material for ABS, add more chunks to the acetone to make a thicker paste.

You can’t get much stronger than chemically welding the two parts together. :slight_smile:

Acetone solution of ABS is good for ABS. I have had trouble with PLA. Recently I tried Locktite super glue on a PLA piece. That works far, far better in my experience than other cyanoacrylates, and has a very short clamping time (~30 sec.)

I used to like to do wood working, and from that I learned that the better the joint you can make, the easier it is to glue. The famous woodworker, Klaus Schulz, used Elmer’s white glue on $10-12K hand made coffee tables for two reasons. His joints were superb (dovetails 0.002 by hand), and the white glue was water soluble for when the table had to be take apart for refinishing in a 100 years or so. We can’t make joints that precise, but anything that provides mechanical strength or a larger gluing surface will help a lot.

I use HFT Super Glue. It works but only recently it started leaving this uncleanable white residue that I’ve had to paint over.

That white residue is cyancrolyte adhesive vapor residue. It shows up more often if you use a set accelerator of some sort. You can remove it with a ca glue remover on some sort of applicator sometimes.

Most recently, I’ve found 5 Second Fix to work quite well. It’s an as seen on TV product but it does a pretty good job.
I found some at the local hardware store and craft stores for $9

All my prints have been with PLA, and I’ve always used hardware store superglue. It’s worked well enough, but I’ve never seen it mentioned for this question… Wondering if there is a reason why?

“Weldon 3” is the Google search. Or “weldon 4”…it should work too.

Indeed…as long as you noted on not bridging a gap…this should work for just about anything we print except I don’t think it’ll do nylon. HIPS, PETG, acrylic, PA. Doesn’t work with acetals or LDPE. Despite the fact we use a ton of HDPE…I’ve never tried it. I suspect it wouldn’t work.

Wally World sells it with an applicator bottle. Or you can get the bottles from just about any plastics supply place. I own an injection molding and we do some light plastic fab. I’ve used tons of places. Find the ones that have a storefront…not the big outfits. Delvies wins. They were the first to come up on a Google search for the bottles…and I know they’ve been good to me in the past. Get the bottle with the blue on it. It’s the best gauge.

http://www.delviesplastics.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/ApplicatorBottle.jpg

Just watch shipping when ordering. It’s usually a hazard deal and might cost more. It really shouldn’t…but you know how regulations work. It’s nasty stuff in aerosol form. But in liquid…rather safe. Surely safer and less flammable than acetone. Sometimes you can get a local plastic fabricator to sell you a gallon as usually they’re buying a case of 4. Sometimes trophy and award places if they do acrylic.

A little goes a long way. Also, print yourself a funnel. Unless you’re using it on a regular basis…you don’t want to leave it in the applicator bottle. After awhile the threads start to give or the seal around the needle and it will evaporate. The bottles fine. Just evaporates in a couple days.

What area in walmart did you find weld-on or scigrip? I could use some good PETG glue. I can order it, but if I can get some locally that would be ideal.

Sorry…shoulda noted it was Wal-Mart online.

You’re using the acetone incorrectly. You cannot just brush acetone on ABS and get it to stick well. You have to make ABS glue.

Put some acetone in a small jar and add some pieces of scrap ABS in the color you want. Allow it to completely dissolve. The acetone should still be watery to slightly-thicker-than-water and not sludge like. Spread this between your two parts and clamp together. You will get an EXTREMELY strong bond.

For gap filling with ABS, put acetone in a jar and keep adding ABS in the color you want until the acetone becomes sludge like. This is what is called “ABS Slurry”. Spread this in gaps on ABS parts in multiple coats and sand and it will come out perfectly.


Glued 20x pieces of a stormtrooper helmet together with this method and it’s a super strong 1 piece part now.

Here is a good video on how to make ABS Glue/Slurry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh9KF69lfwA

-Jim

I agree with Groaker, I have had great luck with superglue. I prefer gel as its easier to control though I haven’t experimented with the abs slurry method so I don’t have anything to compare it to.