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I read that you have to heat treat ABS so that it will bond well with epoxy resin.
Can anyone give me more details on this?

Cheers

Fred

rough and degrease the abs surface.
(sandpaper and alcohol)
Pass the area to be bonded quickly over a flame.
Don't catch it on fire!
ready to epoxy....
That's what I read somewhere , anyway,
you probably get a better/complete answer by searching.
Don't use ABS much myself...

A friend on Foilzone sent me this link to a video about heat treating plastic for epoxy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq6EIUtoK_U

The video is a different type of plastic, but the process is the same.

BWD wrote: Don't use ABS much myself...

What do you use to make really thin rails?

Not that thin, but I have made boards with 3mm ply top and bottom and foam/wood in the core. Hold up well, chop eaters, but not enough pop.
Anyway, rails are a couple layers thin birch plywood, glued with epoxy mix thickened with cotton flock and a bit 'o colloidal silica, shaped with sandpaper and rasp, then another coat of epoxy to seal.
Kinda primitive, I know... wood is tough though. Tough is a good property too
Surprisingly, not seeing any rot in the wood after a couple years and a bunch of scrapes. I guess it dries out fast enough to avoid rot. ABS would be as easy to shape, but more work to bond and repair. ABS seems a popular rail material, but a bunch of folke have done rails out of urethane compounds they mix up and pour like epoxy. These might be the best, given urethanes physical properties - strong, good bond, flexible.... Someone posted a pic recently in this forum of one with wood strip core and green rails and fin blocks (urethane?) under clear glass. ...looked cool.

ABS will bond well with most epoxies without flaming. Just rough it up and wipe down with acetone (fast- acetone will melt abs).

Polypropelyne and HDPE need to be flamed to make them bondable- and will still not bond as well as you may need anyway.

Experiment on some parts first.

Anyone have a good source for ABS in the US?

I want to use ABS rails on my next board and am looking for a source to get the right thickness (3-4cm).

Thanks.

ABS is used for many many things, most of which are not boats or boards, so you can look in phone book for the nearest plastics supplier.
Any town with an industrial base of some kind should have one...
It comes mostly in sheets, also available in rods and bars, depending on where you get it. I bought a 4x8 sheet of it and use it for templates etc. as well as parts.

lawless wrote:Anyone have a good source for ABS in the US?

I want to use ABS rails on my next board and am looking for a source to get the right thickness (3-4cm).

Thanks.

ABS is commonly used by sign makers... you know for store fronts etc.

Try calling a few local sign makers they might be able to help.

in Los Angeles there is a company called gavrieli

For those of you that do use ABS for rails, how wide and thick do you make them?

Do you cut them out of sheet as 1 piece or a couple of pieces?