Thread: Solvent adhesives... why don't more people use them?

ive yet to find a solvent that will dissolve PPE.

meanwhile, my abs sludge method is working pretty well. seems to hold onto the very rough PPE ok. so we will see. pictures to come shortly.

what are your suggestions on quickening the drying time? seems like every thin coat i add, it softens everything under it, and it takes another whole day to dry.

Originally Posted by seanz0rz

what are your suggestions on quickening the drying time? seems like every thin coat i add, it softens everything under it, and it takes another whole day to dry.

Look like it isn't that sunny in Socal lately. Otherwise, just toss it up the roof and you will be fine. Take time, don't rush or you will waste time already spent.

im in my dorm, so im setting it atop my monitors (with plenty of ventilation save for my roommate shutting the window and giving himself a headache, even after i told him not to close that window...)

its coming along quite nicely, i will work on it more this afternoon and hope to have it done by thursday so i can sand all day friday, throw a coat of paint on it and finally call it good!

heat & airflow are the 2 things that affect the evaporation of solvents, but too much heat can cause warpage so don't overdo it... like matrix said, putting it in the sun is good... putting it in front of a fan is good too, but you also have to be careful when forcing something dry...

theres the danger of forcing it too much, what happens then is the top will start to cure but the lower layers may still have solvent trapped, this can lead to solvent "pop" & lifting... for the most part you'll have to have a lot of patience with the solvent method, & not making the solution very liquidy can help too, the less solvent to solids ratio the faster the solvent can evaporate cause theres less of it...

yea ive been working on thickening up my solutions. i chose the monitor heat method because its a very low, constant heat. i also have a fan blowing on it.

luckily its a nice day today, humidity is around 40% so its acceptable. once this class is over and i finish up my lab writeup, i will add a final coat to build it up to the level i want.

can i finish off the top with bondo spot putty?

it depends how flexable the end result is.. if it's very ridgid then spot putty in very minimal amounts should be ok, but will crack if the piece is somewhat flexable & is flexed... there are spot putties made for flexable parts like bumpers that are much better for this type of thing.... if your planning on skimming the whole thing I'd say don't do it, you've got way to much work in it to have it crack up & look like crap, I know you don't want to here this, but the real best way is going to be to finish it with just the sludge... sand it like your finishing it & anything low that needs to be filled can still be filled with the sludge, the best way will be getting the plastic good enough to just need primer really... short of that, the bumper repair product can be used for this too... bondo & putty really aren't the right thing for this...

figured as much... in any case the coating im putting over the top seems to be very forgiving in terms of minor imperfections, much more forgiving than automotive paint.

what is the coating? even textured or rubberized coatings belive it or not will look much, much better if they go on a nice smooth surface, if you get the thing relativly decent, you can prime & sand, prime & sand, this will fill, you have to use the right papers & do not even try to "smooth" until your done shaping, use a real course grit to shape it till it's nice straight & even, only then should you even think of moving up to over 100 grit & try to get it smooth...

texture or rubberized paints are also really tough to get an even coverage, don't learn how to spray it on your actual panel, even if you have to get an extra can to spray a few garbage items first, you'll figure out how it lays out dry, how it lays out wet, how it lays out light & how it lays out heavy... you'll learn how it needs to be sprayed out to give you the look you want..

don't rely on the paint to make a bad finish look good, you should try to prep it as perfect as you can before painting it final, UNLESS the finish your using is sandable & recoatable without problems some are & some aren't... paint itself can fill pretty large imperfections depending on the paint, especially if it's wetsanded between coats...,

another good idea is if you can get some cans of black laquer paint, you can paint it with that first, it'll show you how good or bad it looks & when it dries you can smooth it some more & coat again, building up & sanding can help perfect the piece & then when it looks real good you can put your final finish over it... laquer is great because almost anything can be sprayed over it without compatability issues & it's great at building up & it's more durable than high mil's built up of primer,

I would definatley test this with your paint before for compatabilty, but laquers usually safe...