How to glue ABS plastic

You will certainly have been in the situation where you needed to glue some plastic.

Unfortunately, plastic in general is really hard go glue

This is on the one hand due to the fact, that there are thousands of different types of plastics, on the other hand due to the inherent property of many plastics that makes it hard to glue. If the type of plastic is known, chances are better that it can be glued.

One very popular plastic is called ABS. This plastic is used for example in many toys such as LEGO or Playmobil or for plastic parts of vehicles. This plastic, in contrast to many others, can easily be glued.

A quick check whether the method I describe can work for an unknown plastic is to put a little acetone on a q-tip and brush over the plastic. If the q-tip takes the color from the plastic, chances are, that you can glue it with it.

Prepare the glue

In principle, it is possible to glue ABS directly with acetone. In my experience it is hard to dissolve enough plastic that way. It is simpler to create a “glue” beforehand which can then be used to glue the broken parts.

To prepare this glue, take a piece of ABS plastic in the right color and dissolve it in a little acetone. Acetone can be gotten from many hardware stores for little money. You will have a perfect selection of ABS in the LEGO box of your children. Take a small glass jar with a lid so that you can close it. Put the plastic and the acetone in the jar and close it. You have to wait some hours for it to completely dissolve. You can stir the glue from time to time to accelerate the process.

If the glue is too liquid, leave the jar open for some time and some of the acetone will evaporate.

Prepare the broken piece

As with everything you want to glue, make sure that the surfaces are clean from fat. You can use alcohol or acetone to clean it. Make sure you know how the parts fit together.

Glue the parts

Stir the glue one more time to be sure, that you have a good consistency. Take some of the glue and put it on the surfaces. Squeeze the parts together. Any excess glue can be cleaned with some paper wipes. Then leave the thing you were gluing to properly dry for some hours. The bigger the area, the longer it takes to dry.

With this glue, you can even close bigger gaps or “build up” some missing plastic if some parts have been lost.

You can put the jar with the dissolved ABS aside and use it another time. Even if the acetone evaporates completely, just add some more later to use it again to glue something other.

Conclusion

Glueing ABS is easy, if you know, that you have ABS at hand (obviously). You can check quickly with a little acetone if this plastic could be glued.

To glue it, just mix some ABS with some acetone. You need to wait some hours until you have a sticky paste. Then just glue the parts together.

If done well, this connection will hold really well.