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PLA glue

Posted by MPower 
PLA glue
February 08, 2013 09:38PM
Is there any type of glue that will properly work on PLA? I tried a couple of random glues, sort of universal types, but nothing worked.
Thanks
Re: PLA glue
February 09, 2013 12:50AM
Superglue works well, and I also find I can get some geometries to stick with a thin smear of acetone.
Re: PLA glue
February 09, 2013 09:07AM
I will give it a try. The only super-glue I had around, dried in the tube smiling smiley
Re: PLA glue
February 09, 2013 09:26AM
Would this method work, if you replace the ABS with PLA?
[www.instructables.com]

Or it only works with ABS?
Re: PLA glue
February 09, 2013 04:19PM
PLA reacts to acetone very differently, and Im not aware of an alternative solvent that could be used to weld PLA. Googling on the subject tends to lead you into very scary chemistry that could end badly.

Thermal welding is possible. Ive not tried it myself, but details are given here:
[www.thingiverse.com]
Re: PLA glue
February 09, 2013 06:46PM
Yes, melting the surfaces that are to be glued, works. However, it will ruin the details adjacent to the melting area. If it is a rough part or hidden spot, it works fine, it is the same method as printing after all.

Now, the confusing part is that the thingiverse link says cyanoacrylate aka. superglue doesn't work, while Greg said it works well. I guess I will have to find out myself Monday morning when I'll get me some smiling smiley
Re: PLA glue
February 09, 2013 08:50PM
Superglue definitely works well - I use it for any PLA parts I need to glue together, and the bond is usually much stronger than inter-layer adhesion. The trick is try and glue surfaces together than were printed on the bed so they're flatter - superglue is ludicrously strong between flat surfaces, not so much the slightly-wrinkled tops of parts. Sanding with a fine sandpaper really helps if you're gluing uneven surfaces.
Re: PLA glue
February 09, 2013 10:44PM
Superglue definitely works on PLA... use it all the time.
Re: PLA glue
April 04, 2014 07:59AM
For gluing PLA Loctite Power Flex Gel Control is really good and we use it all the time.

Also possible to get in our store here: [feedtheprinter.com] smiling smiley
Re: PLA glue
April 04, 2014 10:14AM
methylene chloride for PLA acts like acethone for ABS. You can glue even filament
Re: PLA glue
April 05, 2014 06:15AM
This may seem a silly idea to some of you, BUT it WORKS.
I normally use Elmer's glue stick on my glass heated bed for printing PLA, it works really good as long as you let it cool down after printing. The part just pops off by it'self if you let it cool down.
I have several glass sheets that I can use, so I have continued printing.

The other day I ran out of Elmer's glue stick, and living in a small country town where there are no shops that sell this product I had to either wait until I when shopping again in the "Big Smoke" or use something else. (BTW: I have tried many different glue sticks and they all work well)

I thought about it and came up with this idea and tried it out and it works really good also.
I mixed some sugar with water (a lot of sugar) and made a thick syrup.
I spread this on the glass with my fingers and made it as even as possible and then left it to dry.
It took a while to dry, so I put it on the heated bed to speed things up a bit. It dried so I could almost not see it there any more, very thin and flat.

Well I gave it a go and it printed even better than the Elmer's glue stick. When it cooled down a little, the printed part popped off. I tried another print and it worked OK again. I did this several times with no problem, then it started to come loose at the beginning of a print. I sprayed a VERY SMALL amount of water on the plate (almost nothing) and rubbed it with my fingers and started printing again for several times. I guess I would say this experiment was a success.
Wont cost you much to try it out, maybe you can come up with some extra info on how it works or ways to make it work better.
I use just standard window glass for printing on, no special glass that costs a fortune.

For gluing parts together I have found that EVOTITE Super Glue (CA 460) works very well. Just make sure that the parts are clean and can mate together nicely and then put a little glue on one surface and press and hold the parts together. The join is very strong after a few hours, in only minutes the part is strong enough to handle and use.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2014 08:13PM by regpye.


[regpye.com.au]
"Experience is the mother of all knowledge." --Leonardo da Vinci
Re: PLA glue
April 05, 2014 03:07PM
I have found that Bostik Extrufix works very well on PLA. It seems to act like a solvent weld type glue and soaks into the PLA making for a very sticky surface but it sets within a minute and seems to get to full strength in an hour.. Use it very sparingly as too much turns the surface into something like breadcrumbs but a very little makes the PLA more flexible and the bond is very strong. So far I have only used this on natural PLA but it seems to be good and reliable.

Mike
Re: PLA glue
April 04, 2015 04:08PM
What about UHU glue??
any body try it ??
Re: PLA glue
April 04, 2015 04:29PM
UHU is a brand, like Loctite. They have several types of glue. +1 for CA glue with PLA.


Collective intelligence emerges when a group of people work together effectively. Prusa i3 Folger (A lot of the parts are wrong, boring !)
Re: PLA glue
April 06, 2015 08:43PM
Hot glue works well.
Re: PLA glue
April 07, 2015 06:15AM
Lately I've started using 'Bison Tix', it doesn't glue it supersuper strong, but it does work very fast and good for putting models together. The glue isn't fluid but more like a gel, this way you can apply it very precisely to models with small parts. Just apply it to both sides, let it dry a bit, put both parts together and they are welded.

Mostly use this for making my pepakura models, but it works with PLA very well too.


http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/
Re: PLA glue
April 07, 2015 08:39AM
"UHU allplast" glues PLA quite well!
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