Solvent bonding of acrylic – in spite of its hazards to health – is  another kind of magic.  Solvent bonds are really solvent welds.  If the surfaces have been prepared correctly, a solvent weld is often stronger than the original material.

Like all magic, there is another aspect to keep in mind when handling polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), which you may have purchased under the brand name of Acrylite, Plexiglas, Lucite, Perspex, Crystallite, and or some other market name.

If you read the MSDS sheets for the material, it reads like a wonder drug: all good, no downside – except for a little skin reaction.   That’s kind of appalling.  From Wikipedia:

The compound is manufactured by several methods, the principal one being the acetone cyanohydrin (ACH) route, using acetone and hydrogen cyanide as raw materials. The intermediate cyanohydrin is converted with sulfuric acid to a sulfate ester of the methacrylamide, methanolysis of which gives ammonium bisulfate and MMA. Although widely used, the ACH route coproduces substantial amounts of ammonium sulfate. Some producers start with an isobutylene or, equivalently, tert-butanol, which is sequentially oxidized first to methacrolein and then to methacrylic acid, which is then esterified with methanol. Propene can be carbonylated in the presence of acids to isobutyric acid, which undergoes subsequent dehydrogenation.^[1] The combined technologies afford more than 3 billion kilograms per year. MMA can also be prepared from methyl propionate and formaldehyde.^[2]

As an artist who will be working with this (and other) materials to produce work, you need to know what you are dealing with.   Eva Hesse died of cancer not long after producing her signature works which were fabricated with polyester resin.

Friend, mentor, and extraordinarily important and underrepresented artist Lillian Schwartz woke up one morning with a tumor during a period when she was working with casting resins.

Max Gold and Fred-whose-last-name-I-have-forgotten were owners of Canal Street’s famous Industrial Plastics where Eva Hesse purchased her resins.  Both gentlemen died of cancer.  I often wonder what happened to their long-term employees (like Gil, their manager and Mrs. Gold who did the bookkeeping).  Their huge shop reeked of odors associated with plastics – especially when they were machining /laser cutting materials.

I use blocks of Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWP or UHMWPE) to aid in the fixturing of parts for gluing.  Teflon blocks are also good, but the material has other issues and it is more expensive than UHMWP.

The great thing about these materials is that most adhesives will not adhere to them.  UHDWP is the same material that industrial quantities of cyanoacrylate adhesives are packaged in.  The material is so inert that it is now being used as an implantable material for joint replacements.

For the relatively mundane miracle of successful solvent bonding, plenty of moving air, flatness , right angles, and creative fixturing are keys to assembly.  Captions in this slide show should help explain a safe way to work.

Acrylic solvent is mostly methylene chloride

Keep the lid tight when not using.

Limit evaporation. Poke a small hole close to the *edge* of the lid.

I usually use an applicator of this size

Tillt the can if necessary. Squeeze air out and release pressure while tip is immersed in solvent.

Release pressure while tip is imAllow vacuum to put enough solvent to work with in squeeze bottle.

UHDWP blocks are non-stick. Teflon is king.

Right angles are your friend.

Solvent bonds are fully cured only after all solvent has fully evaported.

Use the forces of capillary action and gravity when bonding.

Use what you have on your desk to work.

Vent fumes away from the living tissue of your sinuses and lungs.

Metal triangles are good right angles

Yes, sometimes I use exhaust fans in tandem.

Here is version 1.0 of the tool holder in use: