Alternatives to Ethy Methyl and Ethaline Dichloride

Methyl ethyl ketone is still available. Don't know about methylene chloride.

Maybe there are some cyanoacrylates which will bond them.

Last resort is heat sealing, if the acrylic is thermoplastic and not cast thermoset.

Thank you , but heat sealing was not strong enough

kenn

I do a lot of work in Perspex. I used to use methylene chloride (dichorlomethane) in a syringe, but I find these days that the adhesive which is a solution of acrylic in methylene chloride is a lot easier to handle. It comes in tubes and you can decant it to small plastic bottles with a metal injection spout in the lid. You just need to keep the spout covered up to that the solvent doesn't dry out between uses. I just use a cap made from paper tape.

sounds like something I could use. How and where can I purchase the tube and syringe? also retired used this technique when I was chief tool engineer at timex watch many years ago

kenn

I don't know where you are KENN. I get my glue from the same place I purchase the Perspex. They use it themselves as they do fabrication. In the past I have purchased it from general plastic and epoxy supply places. It is just a solution of acrylic in dichloromethane. They call it thickened adhesive. You can make it up yourself if you want to. It takes a little while for the acrylic to dissolve in the dcm. I just find the tube stuff to be simple and easy. The little bottles come from the same place as the glue. Syringes are only useful for pure solvent and personally I find them difficult to use and less effective for my work. But you can purchase glass syringes from any supply house that stocks such stuff. You need a fine tip.

All these things are available. Contact local chemical distributors. Find them with Google.

Rather sloppy naming. There's methyl ethyl ketone (CH3COC2H5), ethylene dichloride (C2H4Cl2), systematic name: dichloroethane and methylene dichloride CH2CL2, systematic name: dichloromethane. All are powerful solvents. The latter is the active ingredient in paint stripper. Very powerful solvent, but very volatile (low boiling point). I don't know what "something better" means here. Another powerful solvent you might consider is tetrahydrofuran, which is used in admixture with toluene and methyl ethyl ketone to dissolve polystyrene and polyvinylchloride.

I'll raise you a Hexafluoroacetone sesquihydrate

It dissolves nylon, I believe.

Wow - I've never read the properties of this before. It sounds as though you will die just by looking at it. I wonder if it has any uses.

I used it over 20 years ago to solvent bond nylon.

The label on the bottle said something like, "Warning, Hexafluoroacetone sesquihydrate has been shown to cause testicular cancer in rats".

I doubt it's available to the general public.