Ideas for storing acrylic solvent cement so it won't evaporate?

[Bob Engelhardt]

Years & years ago I bought a quart of meth-chlor to use as a cement for acrylic. Pretty soon I noticed the loss to evaporation and I put it in a liquor bottle. Slowed it WAY down. I still have 12oz or so. Must have been 10 years ago, at least.

[MrWhoopee]

Been dealing with this issue with PVC cement. Upside down doesn't help. Just ordered another can, will try secondary containment. For super glue I get the 4-pack of single use tubes at the dollar store. Once opened, they will keep for a few days left open.
I've been storing acetone in an old Coleman fuel can. It has kept for years without noticeable loss.

[BCRider]

I suspect that for solvents like this it is a case of the vapor pressure causing it to leak.

A couple of replies hit the nail on the head for this situation. The thermos is close but instead of a thermos bottle I'd suggest one of the metal bottles used for holding camping fuel. The stoppers on these typically use an O ring. You might need to replace the O ring with a suitable material option that resists the MC but it should work pretty well. The glass liquor bottle is actually a great idea too. But perhaps instead of the cork stopper, which does breath a little, machine up a metal stopper that again uses an O or two ring of suitable MC resistant material.

Since this is likely a case of a fairly high vapor pressure situation storing the container in a cool place would certainly help. I'd frankly not want to do it in the fridge with food. Or even in my second "beer" fridge. But if you have a few things that would benefit from being kept cold such as CA glues and batteries perhaps a small bar size shop fridge would not be a bad idea either.

And you think keeping MC contained is hard? Try ether! In my youth a group of my model flying buddies and I used model diesel engines. And the fuel was 1/3 each ether, oil and kero with a touch of ignition improver. Back then normal folks could buy such chemicals and a buddy of mine kept a 5 gallon can of the ether for mixing our fuel in a fridge in his basement. Despite the factory seals the fridge always had a big puff of ether fumes come out of the door as it opened. Clearly it wasn't a wise place to store something that flammable. But it was a long time ago.

[I make chips]

Methylene chloride is not something you want evaporating in your shop. Good ventilation is strongly recommended. Ok, that was just a safety concern.
It did just occur to me that perhaps keeping your supply cold would reduce the evaporation rate.

Good stuff that meth chloride. We used it in the fiberglass resin biz and I used to take gallons home for parts cleaner. Then there was the day some idiot on 2nd shift dropped a full 55 gallon drum of it and it split open. They opened every door and vacated the building for an hour. *back in the pre regulation days it was.

[JRouche]

Put the bottle in a bucket of water.

-D

I actually like the submersion idea. Maybe not a big ol bucket JR

[JRouche]

Years & years ago I bought a quart of meth-chlor to use as a cement for acrylic. Pretty soon I noticed the loss to evaporation and I put it in a liquor bottle. Slowed it WAY down. I still have 12oz or so. Must have been 10 years ago, at least.

Now I have to go drain a bottle of Scotch huh? Ok, suffer through it Sounds like a good idea, they probably seal better than the original container. JR

[PStechPaul]

If you search Amazon for acrylic solvent cement, you will find some cans as well as smaller containers used for applying the solvent. I don't know if these are the real Methylene Chloride as it has been banned for non-commercial or industrial use. Some of the applicators are actually hypodermic syringes, which may be convenient for application. And perhaps the solvent could be stored in a vaccine container with a rubber stopper that the needle can perforate but essentially close up after removal. I don't know if the rubber in the usual medical containers will hold up to the solvent, however.

I would think that the original metal can should seal well enough if the gasket and mating surfaces are clean, smooth, and tightly fitting. Beyond that, perhaps use some stretchy silicone tape to wrap around the lid for an extra seal.

According to the MDS for this solvent, it is essentially non-flammable, so perhaps it could be stored in a brass or copper container (maybe pipe fittings), and have a thin copper piece soldered on one end to seal it. The syringe needle could pierce this seal to extract enough solvent to do the job, and then apply a dab of solder to reseal the hole.

There is also another acrylic solvent/cement that does not contain the Methylene Chloride. Might be worth a try.

https://www.acrylite.co/products/our...olvent-cements

Can be obtained from this company, along with many other products for plastic fabrication:

https://plastic-craft.com/adhesives/

[3illmesmart]

I use teflon sheets for a jar seal. I buy the (flimsy) teflon baking sheets and cup round caps to put inside the lid. Jar, teflon, lid. If you want to seal it, wrap teflon tape so it just goes over the rim of the jar. You can even get attachments to put the jar under vacuum.

[J Tiers]

......................r. You can even get attachments to put the jar under vacuum.

It would probably work better to put the solvent container in another container and pressurize the second one. If the outside pressure is more than the vapor pressure, it may help with leakage. Plus, the pressure outside will push the cap seal down better against the seal lip.

The typical flat sided or flexible container would not be helped by that, however, it would collapse to equalize pressures.

[mochinist]

I usually have a bottle at the business and also infrequently use it. After finding an empty bottle in the solvent cabinet a few times that I know I put away half full, I started taking the bottle over to my shipping area after I was done with it, tighten the lid on, then I take the plastic wrap(saran wrap) we use to wrap around parts, boxes, etc and I wrap it tightly around the bottle multiple times until it is fully sealed. Havent found an empty bottle since I started doing this.

[MrWhoopee]

You can even get attachments to put the jar under vacuum.

I've tried to explain to my wife that this is counterproductive. She habitually squeezes some of the air out of soda bottles before capping them. This reduces the air pressure inside, accelerating the escape of CO2 from the soda. Same thing with volatile solvents.

[bborr01]

I used to have our chemists make a solution for melting plexiglas and lexan together and as I recall they mixed 10% methyl chloride and 90% acetone or possibly the other way around. They gave it to me in a glass bottle with a ground glass stopper and that kept it pretty well contained but it still would evaporate some over the years.

[RancherBill]

I'd consider grabbing a box of donuts and going to visit some acrylic plastic suppliers or users. Find out how they are doing it or what other products will work in your application.

My solution to the "dry out" problem is to buy the smallest size I can, and not work about the problem. I used to save millions by buying a big size and end up throwing it out.

[gellfex]

I'd consider grabbing a box of donuts and going to visit some acrylic plastic suppliers or users. Find out how they are doing it or what other products will work in your application.

My solution to the "dry out" problem is to buy the smallest size I can, and not work about the problem. I used to save millions by buying a big size and end up throwing it out.

I'm sure their solution is to use it before it evaporates! The pint is no more expensive than the 1/4 pint, so it is what it is. In general buying more and having leftover isn't a bad plan if the item isn't perishable. I just pulled a 4x4x1/8 6063 6 footer out of the basement shop joists because I wanted to cut a 4x1.5 U channel from it. It still had the shipping label on it, from 2002!

[darryl]

Seems it's more about the seal than anything. I don't recall ever having a pressure release when opening the bottle- but perhaps that was because the seal was not up to the job. As far as the cans, anything I bought in cans- like acetone- seemed to stay in the can. The seals were a brown kind of disc, never an O-ring. The bottle of methylene chloride was glass, and had a steel cap with a white disc in it. I could make it tight, but it never did seal the contents in.