Gluing help.....again

[Modo]

I finally glued my 6" tube last night. The seam came out great. No bubbles anywhere within the seam! BUT, I have tiny bubbles that accumulated during the drying process in the fillet.

I did see bubbles start to form in the seam during the 30 minutes after shooting it. So, I added more weight on top of the tube being careful not to move or jostle anything. The bubbles disappeared but seamed to disperse into the fillet on the outer and inner rim of the seam.

What did I do to cause this? What can I do to alleviate this problem when I do the final seam onto the base?

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[fergy]

Honestly, there's not alot, other than to shorten the time period you wait before pulling the pins, and decreasing the thickness of the pin wires. But, it's one of the tradeoffs using this pin technique. For large commercial aquariums where lots of money is being spent, that squeeze will be cut out with a razorblade very carefully, and solvent run around the seam to smooth out the cut marks. With the solvents we're using, it's not really practical, because you will probably get blushing.

BRIAN
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Mercedes Benz W136

 

[Modo]

Well, that makes me feel alot better. I'll experiment with a thinner wire and a shorter pull-time on the base. I can get the thinner wire at the guitar shop I go to.

Thanks Brian!

-Kurt

 

[fergy]

The hard part is that the thickness of wire, pull time, and solvent all vary depending on humidity, brand of plastic, thickness of plastic, temperature, etc. It's tough to find the perfect combination.

The other trick is to not use Weldon or even MC-Bond, but those options tend to be highly dangerous to work with.

BRIAN
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Honda CB500T

 

[agiacosa]

Fergy,

What are those options?

Art

 

[fergy]

Ethylene dichloride is one of them. It works better than methylene chloride because it's less volatile. It doesn't require the acetic acid to retard evaporation. But it's deadly stuff. It's getting really hard to get it, according to James Steele, who uses it on large tanks. He has a special license that allows him to have it, along with tetrahydrafuran, which is used for PVC.

BRIAN
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green economy