Gluing parts together

Hi folks,

I'm interested in trying to print large boxes with my reprap prusa i3. However, the box I want to make is larger than the 200x200x200 mm print volume. I was considering printing out all 8 corners, then gluing together the lower half and upper half of the boxes. However, I'm not sure how I would do the joints.

Is such a construction possible, or would it be too weak?

Has anyone done this before? Using ABS right now, but interested in PLA too.

Thanks!

If you glue ABS with Aceton the connection is as strong, or stronger, as if it were printed in one piece.
In general Cyanacrylat (Superglue) is working very well with most printable harder plastics.

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With ABS acetone or cyanoacrylate should work fairly well, but for PLA pure acetone probably wont work at all (I havent gotten a chance to test the effects of acetone on PLA for myself yet so call it 90% certainty) cyanoacrylate will bond to PLA but it wont have the same effect or strength as it would on ABS mostly because it doesnt melt down PLA like it does ABS. You can use cyanoacrylate on PLA and get parts glued together but its going to be a purely mechanical bond, the glue will leave small white patches behind which if you had a tongue and groove that was a sliding fit with tight enough tolerances could probably be enough to turn it into a press fit.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2014 06:52PM by JMoses.

ABS will not do anything to PLA

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[www.bonkers.de]
[merlin-hotend.de]
[www.hackerspace-ffm.de]

PLA loves hotglue, stuck enough parts together to know the two made for each other, after that 30min epoxy

IPS Weld-On Acrylic plastic cement.

Alternately, do a friction weld: [hackaday.com]