How to apply acrylic cement with a big fat eyedropper

[Kev Williams]

My BIL glues together these plex torque scale indicators we make- they're a piece of 1/16" white plex, a section of 3/8 square rod cemented along the bottom of the white, then the scale- clear plex with engraved and painted numbers and hash marks- is cemented on top of the square rod. So 3 sides are open, allowing a pointer needle to swing within the 3/8" opening.

So today he finds that the 20 or so year old needle-point glue dispenser is leaking at the lid around the needle. A new dispenser is $2.85, but requires a 45 minute round trip...

Because he vapes, he has LOTS of empty 'juice' bottles and their eyedroppers. Ok, lets see if we can save a trip. We suck up some cement into the eyedropper, and sure enough, it just dribbles out because the eyedropper hole is HUGE.

Ok, so how can we make the hole smaller? And I came up with this:

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-It's just a small piece of a Home Depot magic eraser :)
I was curious if the cement would attack the melamine, but not a bit.

And the best part, it took him about 5 assembled parts to get used to the flow, and then all went well. So well that he told me he sees no reason to use a needle again! He put together 35 of these today and he said he had NO issues with bubbles.
A quick-fix that works better than the original, and I saved $2.85!! http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/party.gif

[John Lifer]

I don't do much with acrylic cement, but I tend to make a mess with that needle. Just too thin and I guess practice makes better. But your idea there might be really good. Thanks for sharing and I know that $2.85 was sure worth it :D

[Clark Pace]

You have to apply negative pressure when using acrylic needble aplicator. Also i use pippets with thinnest nozzel. They are great and dont clog

[John Blazy]

Great trick kev! Looks like wool felt in there, as that would work too. My favorite trick to use a ligher to heat the spouts of caulk guns, pipettes, etc then pinch the plastic closed, then carve an angled slot in the end for angled application in a thin line.

Then I have had success thickening up the solvent cement with a little bit of two part reactive cement. It thickens the solvent cement just enough to not shoot out the end of a .020 stainless syringe needle, but still allows capillary wicking.

My favorite trick is lowering 2 part reactive cement down to sprayable viscosity with Methylene Chloride and lacquer thinner, then add my own dry pigments (pearls, white, black, etc) to color acrylic sheet with a welded on coating like this guitar face.
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[Dave Garrett]

John, so let me get this right... you are airbrushing a layer of pigmented weld-on onto acrylic sheet? If i understand that correctly i just got a thousand ideas all at once. Care to share your recipe and process in more detail? like what brand of pigment and proportions of thinners. Do you do only solid coatings or can you "paint" designs this way? tell me more!