TubaForum.net

In the same department as the plumbing PVC glue, they also sell > ABS < glue which is black. It does a great job on cracks on those (not fiberglass, but) old plastic bell flares on fiberglass sousaphones.

I'm wondering (for those few of you who decide to buy the plastic tubas out of curiosity, and - maybe - they break) if that same glue would be what you folks would use to repair them.

I don't have one here to repair, I'm not interested in repairing them, but I'm just wondering about putting out some useful information for other people.

(With plastic sousaphone bell flare repairs, I've discovered that I can layer this glue to offer more sturdiness - for customers who are more interested in reducing the likeliness of breaking again, and less interested in an invisible repair.)

@Rick Denney,
Would you have an educated guess to offer?

ABS cement works the same way as PVC cement—it dissolves the plastic and you get a welded joint. It won’t work on plastic that isn’t ABS. Identifying the plastic is the tricky bit.

For fiberglass, the binder plastic is usually a polyester resin, and only epoxy will really provide a strong bond. I don’t know of any solvent-based polyester adhesives.

Rick “testing in a discreet location” Denney

Acetone dissolves ABS, it can be used to weld ABS

Adding a little context: here's the owner of the ZO plant, after challenging me to break one of his ABS student tubas.

I have some kind of Plastic glue in the basement that seems to work on most. It has two parts, some kind of a primer in a marker form, then the glue, which is CA based.

I'm using right now to reglue a cracked sewing machine pedal,. we'll see how it goes.

UncleBeer wrote: Sat May 30, 2026 3:05 am Adding a little context: here's the owner of the ZO plant, after challenging me to break one of his ABS student tubas.





jpeg-optimizer_IMG_20230715_111324014.jpg

Looks like a true Washington State University band booster.

GO HUSKIES!!!

.