weld-on substitute?
 

I'm trying to build an acrylic skimmer and the one thing I'm having trouble getting locally is weld-on of any type. Now I know that Weld-on is methylene chloride but I'm wondering if anybody knows any other cements/glues that have methylene chloride in them. (some other brand name?) Is it possible that I'm missing it simply because I'm looking only for "weld-on"?

sometimes just called methylene chloride. Any acrylic shop will carry it

I made an acrylic tank a while back and there's a few places that carry weld-on. industrial plastics and paints in rochmond is the place I went to, but there was one in vancouver... can't recall the name.

I forgot that my profile still says "vancouver", I'm actually living in St. John's right now - not exactly a place with a lot of "acrylic shops", in fact I can't find one! Just wondering if it comes in different brand names...

Got a home depot?

yep, but they don't appear to carry weld-on... do they carry some other product that is similar that you know of?

dont take my word for it but i was at totem yesterday getting crazy glue. and beside it they had a LOC TIte Brand that would prob be excatlly what your looking for. it was in the glue silicon section.

yeah, we don't have totem either..... I've looked at every loc-tite glue I could find and none of them have methylene chloride. any other ideas?

how about this stuff?

http://msds.ihs.com/partinfo.aspx?partid=17597

I know it's a paint stripper but it does have methylene chloride. Do the other ingredients matter (the methanol and propane?)

Yes, they matter. HD, down here anyway, sells acrylic. The solvent is right beside it.

I haven't seen acrylic for sale in my local HD, but I guess I'll have to have another look.

could just order it online, but if your in a hurry then that probably wont help you out.

no I'm not in a hurry but I also haven't found anywhere online to order it from in Canada. Anyone have any links for me to places in canada where I could order acrylic, plumbing supplies and weld-on?

BTW, what I hope to ultimately build is a DIY acrylic recirc skimmer with bubble plate and mesh wheel. First time I've ever tried anything like this and I realize it's an ambitious project but I've done some research on it and it looks like it's not all that hard to do with the right materials and tools. I'm trying to build it big enough to handle a 500 gallon system with moderate bioload (2 tanks with a common sump, one reef and one FOWLR). Call me nuts if you like! But I've got lots of time before my tanks get set up and I'd rather at least try one than pay the big bucks required at retail to get something similar. I'd even try a cone if I could figure out how to make one, or a not super-expensive place to buy one.

I'm going to practice by trying to build something similar on a much smaller scale, I need a skimmer fro my nano with no sump. I don't see why a recirc can't work for that as well, with a small feed pump immersed in the tank proper and outflow going directly back in the tank from the skimmer placed slightly higher than the tank itself on an adjacent shelf or cabinet. Does that sound like something that would work?

Look for a GE plastics or SABIC (new name) listing in NL; typically your best source for weld-on and acrylic.

Apparently there is a location in Halifax,
http://www.sabicpolymershapes.com/po...ernational.jsp

Just curious. Where are you getting the acrylic for this project? They should certainly have solvent....

Yes, they do but they're charging $42 for a can of weldon #3! And they don't have either of #16 or #40, which I'd prefer given this is my first such project.

You want to use 3. 16 is just sloppy and 40 is a 2 part mix that it a hassle to work with. A bit of practice and #2 or 3 will be fine.
A small can of 3 should be a couple of bucks.

3 is fast like Methylene Chloride. Use 4 instead to give you more time. 40 is good for not so perfect joints but has a short shelf life. 40 works well for pvc to acrylic. 16 sucks in most cases.

Maybe a good idea at this time of year to read the warnings listed on this link. I'm thinking there may be reduced ventilation in your work area due to heating your space.
http://www.ipscorp.com/industrial/in...ltnpdf/PB4.pdf

not to go off topic but..

The link suggests annealing to prevent prevent crazing, how is that done with acrylic?

Easiest way to prevent crazing is to use cast material. Extruded is a crapshoot. Since the boss said no to anealing in the kitchen oven I used to warm up the extruded and bent parts beside my woodstove (not in the house) for a few hours. Here's a cut and paste explanation,

To anneal acrylic sheet, heat it to 180°F (80°C), just below the deflection temperature, and cool slowly. Heat one hour per millimeter of thickness – for thin sheet, at least two hours total.
Cooling times are generally shorter than heating times – see the chart below. For sheet thickness above 8mm, cooling time in hours should equal thickness in millimeters divided by four. Cool slowly to avoid thermal stresses – the thicker the part, the slower the cooling rate.

Hobby shops and model shops sell something similar to weld-on, I have a bottle which lists acrylic as one of the materials it bonds. I have used it to make some acrylic racks a long time ago.

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing. I got a bottle of methylene chloride for $6 in a hobby shop by the name proweld. It looks like the equivalent of weld-on #3, very watery and thin with an applicator brush in the bottle attached to the stopper. Anyone ever hear of it? Is it safe?