How do you Glue pieces Together?

Hey! so I have been working on printing large sculptures in multiple pieces and I want to figure out the best way to put them together.

for one sculpture, all the parts are painted in acrylic but for another sculpture I will ‘glue’ all the parts together before I paint it, what does everyone recommend? for the second I thought I would glue the pieces with liquid resin, keep it in the sun until it unifies, seems the be best option, but I’m not sure if the resin will harden all the way through, even where the sun don’t shine.

thanks!

on a side note, I thought preform was supposed to have a 200 option, where can you find it?

I glued this together using 2 part epoxy, but I’ve also used regular superglue in the past. I also brush on resin, to fill any gaps in the join as well as provide a uniform smoothness which I then cure using a laser pen and/or a UV sterilization chamber. Some light sanding where required and then painting.

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Get yourself a small Blue Laser pointer in the 400nm frequency range. Put a little resin on one surface, clamp the parts together, shine the Laser on the joint. Resin cures just like when it’s being printed, and the bond can be as good as if it had been printed that way.

Could you recommend us one @Randy_Cohen? I ordered a faulty one from DHgate, so that can’t be recommended. Perhaps you know a better website with proper products?

This is something that interests me particularly. I struggle with gluing two pieces of prints together and i also (and mostly) struggle with gluing the prints (of resin) with other objects.
I am using Super Glue Cement but it doesn’t hold too well, especially when the bond gets put under stress from the actual use of the print.

I am also not understanding what these “blue laser pointer with such specific frequency” are. Are they a more complex version of the laser used for playing with cats? (sorry for the stupid example but it helps me understand). Formlabs should sell one of those or at least provide a suggestion (in relation to how good it works on their resin).

I bought my laser pen from a UK supplier (who’s name escapes me) but if you just google laser pen/pointer 405nm you should get plenty of hits. If you are using superglue for models that are being handled regularly I would suggest switching to a 2 part epoxy as that creates a much stronger bond.

They are mainly a ‘handheld’ version of the laser used by Formlabs (not necessarily the same wattage). 405nm is the frequency of Ultra Violet (which hardens the resin used by formlabs. Therefore, by dipping the connecting parts in liqud resin, placing them together and ‘welding’ them with the use of the laser pointer, you are able to merge separate prints.

@JasonSpiller, do you have the name of the UK supplier? and how many mW was your laser?

that looks great! really cool figure, I would be way too nervous to print such large pieces. I’m going to look into all of that, thanks so much!

Yeah I actually bought a laser pointer from china that… I don’t think is as strong as they say it should be haha, doesn’t seem to work, thats what I get for being cheap. Is there a way of testing the strength of the laser? right now I just have so little money, the only laser pointers I see seem to come from outside of the US and are on the $100+ side so I’m trying to find a good gluing alternative at a more affordable price. I have to check out this two part epoxy

This is the one I use:

http://www.laserpointerpro.com/100mw-405nm-stylish-midopen-blueviolet-laser-pointer-p-354.html

whoa, and its 88% off! actually looking it up again and all of these laser pointers seemed to have drastically reduced in price D: lucky timing I guess. Thanks so much, and How long do you have to point the laser at the object before it hardens?

I’d say 10-12 seconds, you can actually see smoke or vapour coming of the resin as you cure it.

then I know my laser pointer isn’t working :confused: thanks so much, can’t wait to use my new laser pointer~

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