A friend has a favorite ashtray that's cracking apart. It's a plastic with a smooth hard surface but a granular texture at the cracks, possibly Bakelite or Melmac. No manufacturer's name. Purchased at either Azuma or Takishimaya when they had branches in New York.
Any suggestions what cement to use? Can't be anything that's flammable after drying, naturally. Does not need to be dishwasher-safe, though that would be a plus.
If cracking all over, plastic is probably degrading and nothing can be done. Temporary fixes with any glue will probably be OK but I would avoid acrylics and acetates as they have lower heat resistance. A clear epoxy would probably be best.
Honestly, I'd say toss it and buy a new one. However, I think I know what you mean as far as what it's made from, which is a form of Melmac. A few years ago I had just washed an ashtray that I have of a similar material, and I noticed a crack that went all the way thru. I decided to pitch it in the trash. The next day I had to glue an auto part which I brought in the house. I grabbed that ash tray out of the trash to lean the part against it to keep the part from tipping. When I finished, I realized I had mixed too much JB Weld, and proceeded to fill the crack on the ashtray, from the bottom side.
Well, that was several years ago, and I still use the ashtray. JB Weld is strong, and made to hold up on engine blocks and I've even used it on mufflers. So, it wont burn up on the ashtray. However JB Weld is probably more expensive than a new ashtray, but if the guy cant replace the ashtray, JB Weld will do the trick.
Soak the ashtray for an hour in unleaded gasoline, and then use it before it dries.
Smokers are (I think) the biggest drain on the health care system. Self inflicted problem, too.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
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Any suggestions what cement to use? Can't be anything that's flammable after drying, naturally. Does not need to be dishwasher-safe, though that would be a plus.
You can try the industrial super glue gel made by several manufacturers but I'd try to convince your friend to quit smoking, I lost one a few months ago because of it. :-(
Fat people and people who live longer than they should are the biggest drain on the health care system. Smokers don't last long. How's your weight feller?
I did a quick net search. Turns out skinny non smokers are the most expensive. I was (am) surprised.
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the other hand....
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Health care costs for smokers at a given age are as much as 40 percent higher than those for nonsmokers, but in a population in which no one smoked the costs would be 7 percent higher among men and 4 percent higher among women than the costs in the current mixed population of smokers and nonsmokers. If all smokers quit, health care costs would be lower at first, but after 15 years they would become higher than at present. In the long term, complete smoking cessation would produce a net increase in health care costs, but it could still be seen as economically favorable under reasonable assumptions of discount rate and evaluation period.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
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Fat people and people who live longer than they should are the biggest drain on the health care system. Smokers don't last long. How's your weight feller?
Yes. FWIW, before the planet was created. That was what made the planet funny.
Hmmm. No wonder it gets hot!!! I've been ignoring that because I was sure it was on the recommended list. But it also screws up the cooking time estimates.
Years ago, I had a melmac or similar with a pattern and there must have been a little chip in a couple pieces, between the paint and the rest of the dish. When I washed them, a teeny drop of water must have stayed in the crack, and when I microwaved, it cracled and popped and a couple, pieces of paint flew off,
Lot of materials don't adsorb at microwave frequency but I've had problems with those that don't but crack under thermal stress. When I told my wife about not putting the plastic dishes in the microwave, she said she already knew it by practice.
Clipped from Wiki:
A microwave oven works by passing non-ionizing microwave radiation, usually at a frequency of 2.45 gigahertz (GHz)?a wavelength of 122 millimetres (4.80 in)?through the food. Microwave radiation is between common radio and infrared frequencies. Water, fat, and other substances in the food absorb energy from the microwaves in a process called dielectric heating. Many molecules (such as those of water) are electric dipoles, meaning that they have a partial positive charge at one end and a partial negative charge at the other, and therefore rotate as they try to align themselves with the alternating electric field of the microwaves. Rotating molecules hit other molecules and put them into motion, thus dispersing energy. This energy, when dispersed as molecular vibration in solids and liquids (i.e., as both potential energy and kinetic energy of atoms), is heat.
DanG wrote in news:jdsv3f$lr9$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:
you can speed up the cure of epoxies with heat;put the object in a warmer- than-room-temp place.(but not the oven...) I use a box with a string of Xmas tree lights inside,or in summer,the trunk of my car. gets to 140degF in there. One problem is that JB Weld is runny. I like to use fillets to add strength to a joint,where it doesn't look bad.
Epoxies take a couple of WEEKS to FULLY cure anyways.
a good read for info on epoxies is SystemThree's Epoxy Book,it can be downloaded free from their website.
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