Best acrylic adhesive?

[MyTank]

I was looking into trying my hand at building an aquarium. So I figured acrylic, and need to know what would be best for keeping it together.

Also any advise from experienced builders is welcome.

[evoracer]

Well, Weld-On is my preferred acrylic bonding agent, however if you have never worked with acrylic an aquarium may not be the best place to start. By no means am I trying to discourage you from learning, just I would advise to learn on a smaller scale.

[MyTank]

I would practice routing and seaming before I did the real deal. Is it weld-on 4 that works the best?

[herpboyben]

tank to james or troylee they are the acrylic experts around here

[MyTank]

Are those their user names?

[vidson]

weld on

[snoel614]

i use weld on also

[MyTank]

Is there a certain strategy for applying? or just lay down a pass of weld-on and attach it to the other pane?

[Discustopia]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15713627#post15713627 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MyTank
Is there a certain strategy for applying? or just lay down a pass of weld-on and attach it to the other pane?

an often discussed topic and many tutorials exist.
slow down..... read.... and then if you're still stuck we're still here.

[MyTank]

I read something about having pins in between panes, but how would that work when applying the adhesive?

[troylee]

You wanna look into weldon 4 it is a solvent...and yes you want to use pins or needles etc. As a spacer between the 2 panels being welded...weldon 4 is a solvent not a adheisve it works by chemically bonding the 2 panels and making them one.."welded" by using pins or needles it leaves a small gap and allows the solvent to wick in the joint and start breaking the material down by softning it so they weld together...click my red house there is a ton of pics..also do a search for pins and needles method here on rc. Great info...when I get to a desktop I can post some links for ya...the best acrylic info your gonna find is rite here on rc....:)

[troylee]

Btw. Your gonna want to practice and use a good high quality cast material such as acrylite "gp". Plexiglass "g". Or polycast....what size tank are you planning on building?????

[MyTank]

I want the finished product to be 48-30-18 or something similar, maybe 3 instead of 4 feet long. I comes out to about 95 gallons

[troylee]

well on the 48x30x18 i would recommend 1/2" material with a 3" euro brace and a 4" center brace which would yield you 2 top openings of 19x24...
the 36x30x28 size 1/2" material with a 4" euro no center brace should work out good..:)