Best adhesive for clear acrylic bonding

[beatheshopper]

I am in need of finding a glue/adhesive to bond two clear pieces of acrylic together without the glue being evident. I have used super glue but you can still see where t was. I am making awards and need for adhesive to be invisible. Any reccomendations? Thank you

[deirdrebeth]

The best way to bond acrylic is to use acrylic cement. It’s a liquid that melts the two edges of acrylic so you have a single piece when it’s done. That being said, it’s very liquid, so it can get everywhere (it’s sold with an applicator with a needle like nose). As long as what it gets on isn’t acrylic (plastic) it’ll just evaporate off. It what it gets on is acrylic it can make it hazy, or pitted, or a bunch of other things. I still love it, but I tend to make a mess. They also sell it in a high viscous version - but that won’t wick into seams the way the liquid does.

The liquid stuff (if you have a local TAP Plastics, they carry their version in store and it’s the best):

The thicker stuff:

[GrooveStranger]

Here are some options.

Comparison of adhesive appearances on transparent acrylic

What’s the best way to stick clear acrylic together with a nice, optically clear bond? I tried out the adhesives I had on hand. If you can post any others, please do! My test objects are pairs of 0.5" circles of Medium Clear Acrylic Proofgrade. These extreme closeups probably make everything look worse than it is. Water-Thin Acrylic Cement [waterthin] This looks great, you can’t even see the edges of the adhesive drop. However, it is hard to work with. You need to practice wicking it into t…

[evermorian]

How to apply Weld-On:

HOW TO: glue acrylic (welding)

[rvogt]

Just chiming in that I use Weld-On as well and am happy with the results. Just be very careful it doesn’t get on the ‘non’ glued areas.

[shollg]

As everyone has said, Weld-On is the go-to for acrylic joining. If you have not used it before, DO NOT try it for the first time on your final product. Cut a bunch of small test pieces and practice welding them together until you fell comfortable. Then do a few more. Set time is fast, this learning/test process will not last too long.

[rbtdanforth]

Just a note on the Weld-on. As memtioned it evaporates quickly, both on the piece as well as in the can. I have found it useful to keep stored in the freezer as at room temps it has a positive vapor pressure that the whole can will escape if the tiniest hole is available.

When gluing edge to edge I set the direction of the edge down hill that it can drip out the lowest place without getting on anything as the total volume of seams should be less than a drop.