[mooman219]

Oh I've used this personally! I had various surgeries that removed various amounts of bone from me and I asked to keep the bones, which they allowed! I wanted to preserve them in case I wanted to make some esoteric jewelry and it lead to paraloid B-72.

It's quite wonderful. I dissolve the paraloid B-72 in acetone (1 part B-72, 8 parts acetone), then soak the bone in the acetone for about an hour, let the bones dry, and then suddenly they're solid and strong. You can adjust how much acetone you use for how thin/thick you want the fluid. Bones are porus so I opted for a thinner solution and it worked great. It was also really cheap.

[gbgarbeb]

Can we see the bones, Mr./Mrs. Bones?

[mooman219]

Sure, here are some photos https://imgur.com/a/iPDdmDP

[stavros]

Hmm, what, the acetone evaporates and leaves just the plastic? Is that how it works?

[0xbadcafebee]

And typically penetrates into the material (https://rhadhesives.com/why-chose-solvent-based-adhesives/).

Adhesives are a deep and interesting subject if you're looking for a wikipedia hole. For example, if you want the best general-purpose consumer structural adhesive, it's Loctite PL Premium MAX. For the best general-purpose consumer structural adhesive applied in wide temperature ranges, it's Liquid Nails Fuze-It MAX. If you want the best flexible general-purpose consumer structural adhesive, it's Gorilla Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive. For the best all-purpose consumer structural adhesive when properly prepared, applied and cured, it's epoxy resin. For the strongest general-purpose adhesive when tightly fitted and clamped between two porous materials, it's cross-linked PVA (wood glue). There are dozens of variables that change which adhesive is better per application.

[jdietrich]

>Adhesives are a deep and interesting subject.

It's notable that adhesives are something that Chinese manufacturers still really struggle with. Companies like Henkel and 3M have a deep reservoir of trade secrets.

[riversflow]

> 3M

Since it hasn’t been mentioned in this thread: 3M 94 primer with 3M VHB tape is truly amazing stuff for bonding things with high surface energy.

[minimaltom]

high surface energy?

mahm/father I yearn for the spicy surface

[joecool1029]

They seem to have figured out some general purpose ones like B-7000 though. But yeah, agree on specialty stuff.

[Avshalom]

Yeah, the great part is you can then use fresh acetone to dissolve it. We do it with fossils all the time: glue it together, thin coat of glue all over then wrap and transport. Comes off easy in the lab.