How to unglue acrylic?

[Mihai]

I glued (not weldon, but still it sticks very well) my acrylic baffles in an acrylic sump and now I want to move them :-(. Any advice on how to get them out, and ideally reuse them? Even if I don't get to reuse them, any decent method to get them down (I don't like solutions involving a hammer ).

Thanks,
M.

 

[Anonymous]

I may be wrong, but I think you are screwed.

A properly done acrylic joint is just as stong as acrylic itself.

Louey

 

[Mihai]

I might be in luck: I didn't use weldon as, at the time, I didn't know about it. I used something called "glue all" from the hardware store. However, it seems that it works very well too :-(.

I was thinking dremel tool but I'm affraid it will melt instead of cutting it... any ideas welcome.

M.

 

[Anonymous]

You need to hold out and wait for James to respond. He might have some ideas. 7E might have some ideas too.

I wish I could tell you more.

I think the dremel tool will heat the acrylic, which is bad.

Hang tight.

Louey

 

[Acrylics]

Hmm, not sure what this "glue all" is... I might have to ge check out a hardware store tomorrow.
There are a few adhesives and this may be one that are simply elastomeric and might be able to be cut out using a razor blade.
Some of them use solvents such as toluene which serve two purposes for plastics; 1) to keep the adhesive from hardening, and 2) they will attack the plastic similar to Weld-on. These can be problematic to break down.
There are varous others that are affect by heat guns though this can get dicey. Can you simply cut the baffle out?
..if not, coupla more Qs for ya:
Is the adhesive soft or hard? How thick is the glued area? Did you go all around the baffle?

James

 

[Mihai]

Can you simply cut the baffle out?

Maybe I can... how?

..if not, coupla more Qs for ya:
Is the adhesive soft or hard?

Hard (it starts like honey and ends like plastic).

How thick is the glued area?

a few mm (about 3-5mm).

Did you go all around the baffle?

yes, I was very thorough :-( . For most of the baffles I even went both sides...

Thanks,
M.

 

[Anonymous]

Man, you are scre... I mean glued!

If you still insist in redo your work, you may be able to cut it off with one of those flush-cut hand saw. It is one of those "Japanese" thin blade saw with two cutting edges, shaped like a trapozoid, very flexible, and used to cut wood trim.

It is going to be a lot of work you got there....

 

[Mihai]

Man, you are scre... I mean glued!

My thoughts exactly .

If you still insist in redo your work, you may be able to cut it off with one of those flush-cut hand saw. It is one of those "Japanese" thin blade saw with two cutting edges, shaped like a trapozoid, very flexible, and used to cut wood trim.

It is going to be a lot of work you got there....

I'd still like to reuse the tank, it's good acrylic, with bulkhead drilled and all... Or... I can go buy a 20 gal tank, drill it and forget about it .

M.

 

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I would borrow the saw, and see if I can cut the misglued piece off. Use tape to protect surface, since if you are not careful, you may end up with a badly scratched tank... Then you will need to search on threads on this forum about how to remove deep scratches on acrylic.

 

[Bucktronix]

you wanna borrow my baby killer?

 

[Mihai]

you wanna borrow my baby killer?

You seem to be a very subtle guy .
I think I can take the hint.

Reefbox, it's a sump, and it already looks like hell (I removed the baffles once before with the hammer!).

M.

 

[Bishop1]

Rubber mallet
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