Chemical question Carb spray (home made)

[woodchucker]

so I noticed that my can of Gumout carb/choke cleaner is a mixture of acetone and toluene. For some reason this works better at welding plastic than just acetone... Was cleaning my tractor with it for getting to the governor spring that broke. Ran out, before I realized I had one more can in the basement for welding plastic and cleaning. Now not wanting to buy a ton of cans (cheap), I thought why not mix my own. I have one of the pressurized vessels for dispensing. But then toluene is no longer avail at the big box stores, and when looking elsewhere appears to be prohibitively expensive.
I see xylene is available. The sds for gumout shows

so I know the approx mix.. I'm hoping someone here can answer, if toluene can be replaced by xylene, and will I be able to weld ABS plastic still? I ask because acetone alone doesn't seem to weld it , but this mixture seems to work. I know the CO2 is for propellant.

@pontiac428

 

[markba633csi]

Toluene is still a better solvent than mixed xylenes IMHO
CRC brake-kleen might be an acceptable substitute
Walmart used to have a carb cleaner that had toluene and acetone- not sure if they still do
Testor's once sold a cement for models which fused plastic together- I think it was mostly toluene

 

[woodchucker]

Toluene is still a better solvent than mixed xylenes IMHO
CRC brake-kleen might be an acceptable substitute
Walmart used to have a carb cleaner that had toluene and acetone- not sure if they still do

they still do, not having problems getting gumout, originally wanted a weldable (plastic) chemical.. And tried my carb spray. was able to fix my Yakima Rocket box cracks (ABS) using the spray .. put it in a syringe and welded the cracks.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Testor's once sold a cement for models which fused plastic together- I think it was mostly toluene

I was stoked when I found that stuff as a model
building kid.

The love affair was short lived as it was pricy and evaporated too quick to form a good bond and would also evaporate out of the bottle if you left the lid off too long.

 

[homebrewed]

I found some chemical supply places that sell technical-grade toluene, about $40 for 1 liter. Probably much more than what you want, so gumout sounds like a good alternative.

 

[woodchucker]

I found some chemical supply places that sell technical-grade toluene, about $40 for 1 liter. Probably much more than what you want, so gumout sounds like a good alternative.

yep, was just trying to put it in my sprayer.

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Might be cheaper to use the cans... I was a little aggravated at times with the can not firing if I pointed it down almost level.. but it was probably close to empty.

 

[markba633csi]

Personally I wouldn't use toluene for any cleaning job except maybe brakes- it's really aggressive and death to plastics and paint

 

[woodchucker]

Personally I wouldn't use toluene for any cleaning job except maybe brakes- it's really aggressive and death to plastics and paint

Mark, it welds plastic... good to great, since it's getting hard to find something that can weld in small qtys. Yes death when you don't want that.
it is a good cleaner it's in brake cleaner and carb cleaner. So a good degreaser.
as little as the qty used in the carb spray, it makes abs weld, while I was not able to with acetone alone.
I'll probably pick up the xylene, while not as good, if I can find a quart rather than a gallon, I'll be happy to try it.
I remember a lifetime ago mixing acetone with acrylic chips and making glue. Just want to be able to glue the ABS and styrene.

 

[markba633csi]

Got it- - a lot of DIY stuff is more difficult when you can't get the solvents

 

[homebrewed]

Ethyl acetate dissolves polystyrene really well, and is sold as a "green" solvent because it's biodegradable. It smells like pears, and can be a component in fingernail polish remover.

Its one drawback is that it's pretty volatile (it has a flash point of -4C). But it might be OK in a situation where you're solvent-welding a joint. I haven't tried it on ABS (yet).

Like toluene, acetone and xylene it is flammable. The flash point I mentioned is when the vapor pressure above the liquid is high enough to sustain a flame, not when it actually starts to burn. That's much higher.