General > General Technical Chat
Killing yourself with solvents (Alcohols and Hydrocarbons I have loved)
helius:
I've tried using both MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) and DCM (dichloromethane) for solvent welding. MEK is great, relatively slow evaporation, gets absorbed well, easy to place parts. DCM is awful, it evaporates far too quickly, smells like cancer, and so thin that it's hard to brush it on the desired area. I know both of these solvents are recommended for welding ABS, styrene, etc, so what's the deal?
KL27x:
If you want to weld ABS or styrene, acetone works really well. Acetone is thin and evaporates fast, but you can thicken it by dissolving some ABS or styrene bits in it. Maybe make them with a drill or a saw. This is the only solvent welding I have done that actually is completely practical. Even welding plexiglass to ABS this way, no signs of brittleness or cracks, some 10 years later. I tried to take some bits off, 10 years later (some unique parts I had welded onto something I was scrapping), and that wasn't happening even with a hammer.
duckduck:
--- Quote from: TerraHertz on May 18, 2020, 03:34:09 am ---
--- Quote from: mc172 on May 18, 2020, 01:37:37 am ---I don't know if this is even meant for here but I wish they would stop scenting flux cleaner, why does everything need to smell like fake oranges when I want to clean up some flux? Drives me nuts.
--- End quote ---
This. One of my current gripes is the common household cleaner "Ajax spray n' wipe" that I use for many things. Used to be non-scented. But for years now it's only been available in supermarkets in various obnoxiously over-scented forms. Lemon, 'Ocean Fresh Fragrance', etc. It pisses me off greatly.
Keep meaning to contact the company and ask if I can buy it in bulk drums, without any added scent. Being pretty sure the answer would "no", is about 50% of why I haven't tried. (The other 50% relates to laziness.)
--- End quote ---
One reason for the proliferation of "this slightly changed version" and "that slightly different version" of consumer products is Walmart. Walmart (at least they used to) requires that their suppliers reduce the price on each SKU annually. Well, suppliers caught on quick and would make minor changes to their products ("New 16.5 oz size!") that required a new SKU.
Edit:
You could always just make your own. This probably wouldn't be practical because the ingredients would be too expensive in the amounts that you would ever use, but fun to think about.
Edit edit:
Looks like the Klean Strip brand denatured alcohol available at a popular chain of home improvement stores in the USnA still has a mother truckload of Methyl Alcohol (see attached piece of the Safety Data Sheet), as well as a little MIBK.
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