Has anyone else had problems mixing these two clear liquids. 

I’ve found the only way to get consistent viscosity is to let the solution sit and dissolve for awhile.

lol It may be difficult.... Have put it in paint shaker for an hour!!!!! lol

Chris

Christopher - 23 May 2008 05:45 PM

lol It may be difficult.... Have put it in paint shaker for an hour!!!!! lol

Chris

This afternoon I hand mixed for about 20 minutes and it still looked like clear brains in water so I left it sit for about three hours.  I came back and it was nearly dissolved.  Mixed for about five minutes and it was ready to poor.

I think the key is not to rush it.  The substances will dissolve on their own almost as quickly as if you mix them. 

Of course a power shaker would be the best way to go.

ahhhh!

i left my my lexel and toluleen to cure over night and this morning i find big nasty cracks in my half inch plexi!

that’s 160 bucks down the drain and my deadline to show results on this project is Tuesday…

i’m not to happy.

there are two nasty large cracks that you can see in the photo and a few smaller ones along the edges?

has anyone else had this problem?  what could cause it?  is there heat generated in the curing process?  could the wood i used as a frame on the top and bottom have expanded and put stress on the glass?

I’m going to continue and apply a second coat this afternoon.  i hope it doesn’t make it worse! 

I have to make it work for my deadline.

Crack in th plexi??????  May be something else than plexiglass.... Have made many tests and never had problem even with acetone and really powerfull industrial lacquer thinners.........  I had some problems at the first application in test… i had some spots where the rubber didnt stick, it was where my fingers and other thing touched the accrylic. Fingers and other things could let grease onto the surface and it will set the ftir effect and will cause some kind of eye fish on the acrylic.

I’m sorry for those results.... it’s surprising me! Hope it’s gonna work!
Chris

Hey Christopher, i’ve been looking for Toulene for the past few weeks and haven’t been able to find, plain toulene anywhere.  I’ve found Toulene, with Methyl Alcohol and Methyl chloride, then there is one thing i found which had Toulene with Acetone. And i’ve found various other thinners, turpentine, Acetone and random paint thinners at Home Depot and Rona, which don’t have ingredients of the mixture listed. Do you think any one of these may work? Did you purchase a special brand of paint thinner, did you just go to your local paint shop and they had it there?

Taha

I really don’t know you should tryto look for specialized paint store with industrial product. Acetone will not be good for sure… the other product i dont know......

Chris

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my cracks just got worse.  after i applied a second coat of toluene they spread throughout the acrylic.

Then I removed the wood that i clamped around the edges to protect against run off and found that the sides had completely disintegrated with large chucks flaking away.

I can think of two things that i did differently than most people in this thread. 

1. I clamped wood tight around my edges to prevent runoff.  Maybe this did not allow the plexi to flex while the rubber dried and created not only the cracks but the edge chipping as well.  On a side note it also did not prevent runoff… the garage floor now has a rubber coating of its own.

2. I used a very runny solution of toluene it’s viscosity was closer to water than the honey other people talk about.  I did this so it would spread evenly and it seemed to work.  I had to apply multiple coats and find a way to prevent as much runoff as possible but until the plexi failed i was happy with the results.  Perhaps this was what created the tension that cracked my plexy.  Maybe it shrank more as it dried. 

Another problem that i noticed that seems immaterial now is that my second coat dried very hazy.  It might still have worked but was nothing like the clear results i got with my single coat test run.

I’m not sure were to go from here.  It seems like an epic failure.  I’m not feeling to happy and neither is my boss. 

Dare I risk another $160 piece of glass or should i pursue other options?  I just don’t know.

Christopher thanks for all the help you’ve given us so far I just wish I could make your solution work for me as well as it did for you!

-Paul

Anyone look at something like this?
It may be cost prohibitive, but hey..I have to dump my money into something so the ex doesn’t get it in the divorce..

http://www.rubbercal.com/Silicone_TR.html

Hi Paul’
I really dont understand.... I cant believe the rubber is strong enough to crack an half inch plexi...... God its strong, I fell like I could walk onto it without breaking it… My mixture was more like water than like honey… As I understand you spray it, first thing wich is really important you dont have to wait to long before aplying another layer, you have to spray it while the other is not totally dry to allow them to merge together. Seriously, I really don’t know what to say about your crack except change provider and do test before the big shots..... Seriously i would go back to my provider and tell him its a cheap product…

Have google to look and I foud this website. wich tell:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chemical Resistance - Acrylic plastic has excellent resistance to most chemicals, including solutions of inorganic alkalis and acids such as ammonia and sulfuric acid, and aliphatic hydrocarbons such as hexane, octane and VM&P naphtha. It is attacked by the following chemicals:
Gasoline

Chlorinated hydrocarbons such as methylene chloride, a solvent cement widely used, and carbon tetrachloride.

Aromatic solvents such as turpentine, benzene, and toluene.

Ethyl and methyl alcohol.

Organic acids such as acetic acid, phenols, and lysol.

Lacquer thinners and other esters, ketones, and ethers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be honnest I’ve tried almost every of those solvan on my acrylic and never had any problem..... I Just don’t undesrtand!

bobsusedtires I never tried it but it looks good!

Chris

The cracks are stress cracks caused by the toluene reacting with the edges of the Plexiglas/acrylic. I use acrylic regularly and this occurs from time to time with solvents and especially on flame polished acrylic. I really was expecting someone to mention this reaction sooner as I thought o f this the moment I read of toluene and plexi/acrylic.

Lord Inquisitor - 01 June 2008 10:59 PM

The cracks are stress cracks caused by the toulene reacting with the edges of the plexiglass/acrylic.

Thanks! Good to know I’m not crazy.

FYI - I moved on to sorta clear 40 and have had excellent results.

Lord Inquisitor - 01 June 2008 10:59 PM

The cracks are stress cracks caused by the toulene reacting with the edges of the plexiglass/acrylic. I use acrylic regularly and this occurs from time to time with solvens and especially on flame polished acrylic. I really was expecting someone to mention this reaction sooner as I thought o f this the moment I read of toulene and plexi/acryil.

~ I wish would have known that was a possibility before I ruined my $60.00 acrylic.  Mine looks kind of like Paul’s now :( except that it isn’t cracked in the middle - just around the edges.  I hope it doesn’t get worse.  The edges are just slaughtered though.

I didn’t clamp wood to the edges, but I had aluminum rails taped to the 2 long sides of my 3/8” thick cast acrylic.

I just flame polished the edges of my acrylic 2 weeks ago with a butane blue torch lighter, and I poured my silicone caulk/toulene mixture last weekend.  It dried too quickly for me to spread it evenly.  SO I began to splash some toulene on it to try and salvage it, but it was a lost cause.  I guess the splashing of the toulene may have been the straw that broke the acrylic, so to speak?  I believe that my silicone mixture was too thick for it to spread out evenly, and that’s the reason it dried too quickly.

I’m thinking about getting a shop to cut the edges off of this acrylic if it’s not too expensive (and if I can find someone to do it)
@ Paul, Did you get a new acrylic sheet to use with the Sorta Clear - or are you using the same one that is cracked up?

@soybomb

Yeah i got a new sheet.  The edges were just to bad to salvage and although i could have cut a usable piece out of the middle i wasn’t able to strip the toluene surface away.  It was just to sticky.  We have a local glass store that polishes the can edges perfectly.  They get even better results than I did by flame polishing. I just ordered another sheet through them.  This is my third one and it’s working!

I’m running my first apps today.  The table needs more tweaking but after the last 3 or 4 weeks of failure it sure feels good to see some results.

Hi guys!
I’m really sorry for your bad results.... :(
I’m really amazed to see what toluene can do in 2 minutes on those acrylic sheet. My acrylic never reacted with any product I’ve tried, there’s one piece that got almost 20 different kind of layer with different product and I never had any problems....

I would definitively suggest anyone to run some tests like I did before making the entire sheet!

Thank to inform the community that it could happen!!!!

Chris