Fixing / repairing PVC scratchplate - if possible then HOW?

Hi DB

I have a problem like this:

I just made a plastic scratchplate and a steel control plate that are next to each other in a p51 manner. Now - the joint is not perfect and some wood from underneath can be seen in the joint. I was planning to melt pieces of the plate with acetone to fix and tidy this.

I then went to do the mix - and the pieces would not melt. After googling the subject I then think I found out why. In stead of a celluloid plate I bought a PVC plate and it won't melt at all. Only reaction I get is the three layers come off cause acetone probably melts the glue between them.

Do you know a way to fill this crack somehow? Is it possible to melt some selluloid plate with acetone to be used in this with the pvc and will it attach to it? There was some talk about melting the pvc with a double boiler but I'm a bit sceptic on would it attach to the plate properly when put on the crack. Is there a chemical I could use to melt PVC like with acetone and celluloid? Could some form of glue be used in this that is plastic based and maybe even black or can be made black?

First I thought to do this by putting an oven paper between the body and the parts, put on the screws to hold them in place and then fill the gap carefully in place with acetone/celluloid mix. After all it's not a big gap but I wouldn't want just to put some permanent marker on the wood below.

Any advise would be appreciated cause I woudn't wanna make a new scratchplate just yet.

Arzi

Hi Arzi,

First off, are you 100% sure it's PVC? Most multi ply pickguard material is ABS and as you now know, different plastic requires very different methods. There are a few ways to tell, but I'll get to that in a minute.

The short answer is NO. You won't be able to stretch or reshape PVC or ABS with solvents. Melted celluloid will not bond to PVC or ABS either and in my opinion, even if it did, would be messy and end up looking awful. The other thing is the correct solvent to use with PVC is MEK, and believe me, MEK is super nasty stuff.

There are two easy methods to determine whether you have PVC or ABS. First, ABS will float in water, PVC will sink. Second is the burn test. ABS will burn with a yellow flame with blue edges, produce black sooty smoke and smell acrid. PVC will burn with a yellow flame and green spits, produce no or minimal smoke and smell acidy.

So, if you want to reglue the layers together, if you have PVC, you will want to get some " PVC pipe cement" available at most hardware stores, or if it's ABS you will need "ABS cement" which is harder to get (plumbing specialists will have some) or use straight Methyl alcohol.

To sum up, I think you are better off making a new pickguard but you could also modify the one you already have to fit better or leave it alone and dealing with a less than perfect join which, let's face it, no one else will probably ever notice.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Pabs :)

Thanks Pabs. Now I can make up my mind about what to do next. :)