Bree
Member
I had a problem with the acrylic pen I turned on Saturday which was posted today. I was pressing in the center coupler and the darn tube came loose. I had glued it up with a good quantity of fairly recent Thick CA. When I removed the tube and the partially pressed coupler I was surprised to see that the glue was still wet on the inside. The ends were dry. As I pulled the tube out of the blank the glue almost immediately dried.
It became obvious to me that simply applying the glue and rotating the tube into the blank wasn't enough. The CA requires moisture to polymerize and cure. My shop is dry with a dehumidifier running automatically. Wood typically has some moisture in it but the acrylic has none. So the CA might as well have been in the bottle.
So I pressed in the coupler the rest of the way. Then I cleaned out the blanks and applied vinyl tape all around the the surface of the blank to catch any squeeze out. I sprayed accelerator into the blank. Then I applied CA and quickly rotated the tube into the blank so that it abutted the coupler and it fit perfectly.
I took off the tape and cleaned a tiny bit of squeeze out and the pen was good as new. I think from now on I will spray accelerator into my blanks before rotating in the tubes so I am sure that the glue will cure.
Any comments? Do you guys think this is a good idea??
It became obvious to me that simply applying the glue and rotating the tube into the blank wasn't enough. The CA requires moisture to polymerize and cure. My shop is dry with a dehumidifier running automatically. Wood typically has some moisture in it but the acrylic has none. So the CA might as well have been in the bottle.
So I pressed in the coupler the rest of the way. Then I cleaned out the blanks and applied vinyl tape all around the the surface of the blank to catch any squeeze out. I sprayed accelerator into the blank. Then I applied CA and quickly rotated the tube into the blank so that it abutted the coupler and it fit perfectly.
I took off the tape and cleaned a tiny bit of squeeze out and the pen was good as new. I think from now on I will spray accelerator into my blanks before rotating in the tubes so I am sure that the glue will cure.
Any comments? Do you guys think this is a good idea??