How to Fix ABS Items With Acetone

ABS is one of the most commonly used plastics in the world. All Lego blocks for example are made from it. An interesting property of ABS is the way it readily dissolves in acetone. This allows you to essentially make your own cement out of ABS in order to bind it together in novel ways.

In conducting tests it was found that the weak point was not at the point of adhesion, so using acetone provides a very strong bond between parts.

• 3D Printer
• CAD software
• ABS Filament
• Acetone (Commonly sold as nail varnish remover)
• Sandpaper (optional)

Before you begin, you need to create the file that you will print.

• Measure the area that you will need to cover
• Open your CAD software of choice. For demonstration purposes I will be using TinkerCAD.
• Drag in a shape and resize it to cover the break plus a healthy margin.
• Make sure the height of the part is no more than 4 mm so you can easily bend it into the right shape.
• Export the file as an STL and print it with ABS filament. With small patches that are thin and quick to print you don't need to worry about bed adhesion, as you might when printing a larger ABS part.



Cover the surface of the patch in acetone, you can do this with a pipette, or spoon, or even a straw. Remember to act fast because the acetone will begin to disolve the plastic immediately.

Sandwich the acetone between the patch and the broken part. After this, feel free to add additional acetone to the join so the ABS forms a strong bond.

Make sure to apply pressure while the acetone dries.

If you're happy with your end result you can finish here. Or, you could sand down your patch, and wipe away the scratches with a tissue soaked in acetone.