re: Pallet wood and acrylic table lamp

Ian the sanding works great. I did that on my cabinet doors bit only one side was sanded so the outside was still smooth. Believe it or not, as easy as it is to scratch, it doesn’t sand easily. I used 80 grit to get a nice frosted look. Only do this with a ROS or you’ll get streaking.

Tinman, I did some reading before I started about how to join acrylic, which is plastic. Acrylic cement is basically acetone which slightly melts the material and methyl ethyl ketone which bonds the molecules. It’s literally welding. Anything else won’t work. However, many types of glues contain both of these, including CA glue and PVC pipe cement. Those things also have other fillers for different purposes. I used PVC pipe cement for a few reasons. I have it on a shelf already and I didn’t want to buy something new. Secondly, it contains fillers that thicken it. That helps it get into the crevasses of the cut, which was far from smooth on a table saw. I watched some videos about acrylic cement and it’s very watery. You apply it with a syringe along the joint and it gets sucked in to the joint. That can only happen with a very fine edge (tight joint). Slopping PVC cement around wasn’t a problem for me because I wasn’t trying to maintain a perfect clear finish. The opposite, in fact and any run out could be sanded out. There is also acrylic weld, where the filler is acrylic. I think it comes in a tube but I made my own using shavings left on the table saw. Be careful with that. Any sawdust or other debris in the shavings you scoop up can ruin your finish – make it look dirty.