Fixing acrylic

[Esser]

Has anyone successfully fixed acrylic? I just made a 1" crack on one of my bubble doors at the rear. Do I drill stop the crack and then repair? Or just use the acrylic repair stuff without drill stopping the crack.

[David47]

Josh, I'd recommend stop drill the end of the crack. Probably 1/8" (minimum) drill size should be ok. Use the very end of the crack as centrepoint for the hole. Maybe use a magnifier to make sure you identify the crack end point.

[Esser]

Sounds good. Then I'm going to try my hand at injection methyl chloride into the joint which should fix it up

[jmodguy]

I used to fix acrylic avionics faceplates when I was in the Navy.
This is what we would do.
Stop drill it, grind some scrap into a powder and stuff in the hole and apply your fusing chemical. Don't use sandpaper, you could end up with silicon bits in your powder.

[Esser]

Thanks for the tip Jeff, you think if I use a file to make the powder it will work? Will tape be good enough to stop the shavings from dropping through? Or do I need something more substantial with the chemicals involved?

[efwd]

I see you glueing the tape to the acrylic if you do that. Think youll need to find something thats not going to adhere to your chemical. Maybe silicone or wax paper or something.