C-Forum

Can anyone recomend a good adhesive for abs to abs or would I be better of to bolt the 2 pieces together?

I have good success with methacrylate adhesives. These are two part adhesives that are no-mix. These are structural adhesives used for constructing boats and aircraft. The least expensive is Loctite 330. It is available in small kits contining 25 ml of methacrylate esters and 25 gm of methacrylic acid. These kits cost about $25. You put the acid on one piece of plastic and the esters on the other part and press together tightly. This provides a strong bond with just about any acrylic.

Another no-mix, methacrylate adhesive is Dexter Hysol 9446. It is avalable in one quart kits. It is very expensive at $239 per quart, but is the strongest adhesive for bonding ABS to ABS. I have used Hysol 9446 for 16 years to bond formed, ABS patches to the interior and exterior of Royalex hulls with very good success. I have a Whitesell Piranha with a stern grunch plate (1/8" thick ABS) that is 15 years old and holding up great!

Plexus makes methacrylate adhesives that are two part, mix adhesives. Plexus 3000 and 3100 are the same price as Loctite 330 and are best applied with a cartridge gun. This gun holds two 50 ml cartridges and as the trigger is squeezed the two parts are mixed together equally. Cost is $25 for the cartridge gun and $7 for each cartridge. The only drawback I see with the Plexus adhesives are shorter working time than with no-mix methacrylate adhesives.

I'll look through my adhesive literature and see if there are any other ones to recommend. I have collected several from industrial adhesive manufacturers over the years.

Michael

Here is a link to the Loctite Website, where you can download a selection gude for bonding plastics:

http://www.loctite.com/int_henkel/locti ... 5&layout=2

Hope this helps

martin

I don't know the chemistry or active ingredients in this stuff, but I bought some ABS cement through a local plastics supplier that sold me some ABS sheets. It is called "Weld-On 1707" and is made by IPS Corporation, a gallon cost me something like $25 plus some shipping. Stick to pieces together and they ain't two pieces no more - like two hearts joined in holy matrimony they become one and I haven't been able to part the twain.

I have the MSDS around here somewhere, but for some reason I'm thinking there is some MEK (methyl-ethyl-ketone?) and ABS in there? WHen you paint it on, the surface (you paint both surfaces to be joined) gets a little gummy like it does when exposed to MEK. When you stick them together it doesn't take long to set up.

If you were near here, you'd be welcome to some of mine, a gallon goes a looooong ways.

Scott

Hi Scott
Could you use something like that to attach extra ABS layers as skid plates? I've got kevlar felt/epoxy ones on now, but I cracked a small section off one (and minorly cracked the outer BAS layer underneath - or that may have been the existing crack I was covering: can';t recall hitting anything that hard on the weekend). I was talking to Bob Z over the weekend and he said he didn't use kevlar felt/epoxy pads anymore because they do crack very easily. I'm wondering if that's what you're using this ABS-ABS glue for.

Cheers

An ABS skid plate is much more durable than the standard epoxy/kevlar skid plates. They also add less weight to the boat. It require more work to install ABS skid plates to a Royalex hull. I recommend 1/16" (.063") thick ABS for forming skid plates. The adhesives I've already mentioned work well for bonding the formed plate to the hull and there is much less chance of the hull cracking around the skid plate than with the epoxy/kevlar type.

I used ABS (1/16"?) to patch the bottom of my Mohawk Viper - just a long rectangular piece flat on the bottom - it's been there 3 or 4 years I think and it's good as new. As dixie_boater and numerous other folks I've heard say, it makes better grunch pads, too. Grunch pads shouldn't be too hard, because you are dealling with a curve pretty much only in one direction.

I couldn't get the ABS to take to the chine because of the curves in two directions without wrinkling - though some folks on this board have provided some good ideas that I'll try some day.