repairing plastic crystals

[digibloke]

Hi all. I've been wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks as to what to use for patching up deep hacks etc on plastic crystals (led). I'm pretty sure I've read of someone using red epoxy resin but can't find the post (and I can't find any red epoxy resin).

In the 70's you could buy stuff called "liquid plastic" which would have been perfect, but judging by it's complete unavailability I presume it's been banned...

[azimuth_pl]

you might use any epoxy with some red nail-enamel added - however I've never tried this myself on big surfaces or to repair scratches.
you also might dissolve some red transparent plexi from a dead watch using a chemical solvent called Toluene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toluene

throw in small parts (of most types) of plastic into a very small glass container with lid and fill it with toluene (apply less than more). after a day or two and periodic mix, the plastic will be completely dissolved into a plastic semi-liquid substance. apply this "glue" onto parts made of the same plastic. after the solvent has evaporated, the only thing that will remain is the plastic itself which you can afterwards file down to shape and polish to shine.

as a kid I used to assemble plastic cars and airplane model-kits and toluene was the best solvent used to make real plastic glue using the plastic leftovers after the car parts were removed. the "glue" has the same color so most often the models didn't require paint to cover the stitches.

[xevious]

Cool info there, Azimuth. Thanks for posting. I used to model build as a kid and had no idea about Toluene.

By the way, the period "." you used in the link confuses Wikipedia, so your link doesn't reach any information. You might want to edit your post.

[retroleds]

Epoxy and acrylic nail polish are not compatible in their wet state - one is a catylist hardening polymer, the other hardens through solvent evaporation - the nail polish will interfere with the hardening of the epoxy. Clear acrylic bathtub filler(sold at stores that sell hot-tubs) IS compatible with red acrylic nailpolish....look for the color "ruby gloss if you want to use straight hot-tub filler.
Just my $.02...

[azimuth_pl]

absolutely right Ed, I forgot to mention that the red nail-enamel should be added less than 1 drop to a larger amount of epoxy - just to get a light red color.