Unbonding Superglue

[mojo]

I need to separate 2 pieces of plastic angle which were bonded together with superglue.
Any advice as to what can be used to do the job?

Maurice C.

[ntpntpntp]

Nail varnish remover (acetone) is supposed to be good for this.  There are commercial "de-bonder" products (as always, google will find them for you). 

To be honest I just use a sharp scalpel to part the two pieces as it's only a surface bond not a melting of the material as you get with plastic solvent glues.

[Platy767]

I use Acetone for superglue removal, but I have only used it on whitemetal models. I just drop them in an acetone bath and either pick them out after an hour and they come apart easily or forget about them and go back when the acetone has evaporated and there is a disassembled kit with white stuff on it in the the tray.

I did use the gentle approach at the beginning and use a paintbrush to apply acetone only to the joint and let it works its way in and soften the glue. Then gently separate the parts.

I would be confident to use acetone on all metal assemblies, but I would test with other materials before committing a model.

It sounds like I have had many disasters, but really, less than a half dozen all up.

Mark

[njee20]

Acetone will likely melt whatever you've glued (it melts Lego I discovered). I'd go with Nick's approach and use a scalpel.

[bigdawgks]

The problem is anything strong enough to dissolve the glue will probably also damage the plastic.

You might try freezing it, which makes the glue more brittle and may make it easier to break them apart. But unfortunately CA bonds very strongly with plastic and in a lot of cases that bond can be stronger than the plastic parts themselves.