Acrylic (Plexiglas) questions

No. Get a Dreadnought file instead - a rasp with wide, curved teeth. Commonly used for working car body filler. For a really smooth finish, go to a coarse metalworking file, then a fine file, then silicon carbide paper, then polishing compound.

I rarely clamp, except with my fingers. You should get a reasonably fast tack for solvent welding. Normal clamping won't hurt though.

It's hardly Arsine. Just don't sniff the stuff - unless you're one of those delicate Californian flowers who probably think it's instant death. Maybe Arnie is afraid of solvent damage to his cogwheels ?

Use sensible ventilation and yes, you can get respirator filters for it. You're only solvent welding, so you don't need much. Paint stripping will give you far more exposure.

Mine's in a big glass bottle with a plastic anti-breakage wrapper - normal lab reagent bottle.

Evaporation will tend to do that. Dichlor is a bit infamous for this.

Not unless you re-thread the can with a tapered thread. Just try some

One thing to be aware of is that unlike some materials, cutting faster is usually better than cutting slower with plexi. If you cut too slow, the heat builds up, the plastic starts to melt onto the blade, and then you've got a real mess.

It's been a long time since I worked with plexi, but when I did, what we used to do was have an air hose blowing on the blade to get better cooling. It probably wasn't necessary, but it didn't hurt either :-)

Looks a lot like an Axe file, but it's hard to tell from the pictures.

Californian Flower? No, slightly cooler here. But I'm guarding my three remaining brain cells. :)

I was considering a mason jar.

Thanks for the feedback.

An easy way to finish the edge of plexi is with a torch. Use an open flame near the edge but not too close and it polishes and seals the edge to a finished state. We once had to make over 100 little plexi shelves. We were sanding for hours when someone showed us this trick. max

Does this work with ABS?

-Peter De Smidt

Try it, it might. ABS is heat sensitive so it probably will. max

a scraper can get a really good flat and almost polished edge. use a flame to get a polished edge.