Multilayered laser-cut map of London

I think I’ll stick to silicone in a 5ml syringe. Nice and reversible.

Solvent is the best Tensol or Plasticweld.

When I was doing my clock cases (Transparent acrylic) the guys that did the cutting used Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride) to weld the edges, made a totally transparent joint.

I have a pot of it at home if you want to try some ?

Courty

Thing with “weld” type glues is that their strength comes from “melting” the two surfaces together. I’m worried that the gap is too wide for this to work well. I just remember from building airfix models that if you made a join too loose it would be brittle and crack easily.

Actually if the gap is too big, it just wont stick at all and make a mess of the surface.

Thats plastic weld, you can buy it from a place called EMA in Tulse Hill/West Norwood.

Kind Regards

Tom Lynch

··· > On 16 Mar 2016, at 13:26, Paul Court wrote: > > Courty Paul Court Member > March 16 > When I was doing my clock cases (Transparent acrylic) the guys that did the cutting used Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride) to weld the edges, made a totally transparent joint. > > I have a pot of it at home if you want to try some ? > > Courty > > Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond > > In Reply To > > unknowndomain Tom Lynch Trustee > March 16 > Solvent is the best Tensol or Plasticweld. > Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond > > To stop receiving notifications for this particular topic, click here . To unsubscribe from these emails, change your user preferences

yes this stuff is like water, defo not a gap filler - if you have a close/flat joint, it melts the surface and makes the material one solid piece so very strong…

Courty

Dichloromethane is plastic weld glue of the thinnest type, essentially. Thicker plastic weld glues have varying amounts of things dissolved into the dichloromethane to thicken it up. Buying raw dichloromethane is cheaper than branded plastic weld glues, however.

I would have thought when using weld-type cement (and CA) with clear plastic that there is a danger of making the surface in the vicinity of the joint cloudy. You might remember from making Airfix kits that if you stuck a clear piece, like an aircraft canopy, onto the model with plastic cement, it would become cloudy, because of the vapours given off by the glue. Modellers fill gaps with filler, but then this filled joint is usually sanded, primed and then painted. It is quite tough to fill a gap if the surface is to remain unfinished. You might want to try a PVA-type glue, and there are also specialist gap-filling canopy glues for modellers, e.g.:

http://www.shop4glue.com/canopy-glue-clear-set-canopy-bond-model-kit-plane-boat-window-adhesive-clear-set-glazing-canopies-131-p.asp

Yeah the fogging issue is why I’m not keen to use strong solvents. Although it might make sense to stick down the railways and tubes with it.

This is brilliant! Such an informative post… Ive been having the same problem of everything freezing and having to scrap the materials.
Does anyone already know if the ‘freezing’ is based on the file being over a certain size or after X number of minutes it will freeze?

It seems entirely unpredictable. We need to try a different PC.

I’ll try out a different machine on Thursday.

Also I did ask a while back if someone could call Trotec support during the day whilst at the space.

I had the computer running for a good 75 minutes today, with Jobcontrol running the entire time. No crashes. The only thing I did differently was have a hot air fan blowing across the keyboard to keep my fingers warm :smiley:

Cut some train tracks and tube lines.

That close-up has me very excited.

All the tube lines are cut now. The Northern line snapped in several places :frowning: but it should go back together ok with some weld.

Now to build a box for it, glue the tubes together and stick dozens of tiny transparent props under them to get the levels right, peel all the backing film off the main map, glue the railways down, and think about how to light it.

Did you do the Elizabeth Line?

Yep, in that lovely purple

I wasn’t sure.

Hey Peter… it would be brilliant if you had time to try out a different pc… Good news for Tom that he had a decent run of it the other day - mine crashed every 1 out of every 3 attempts though :sob: