Styrene cements and construction

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prisoner_1079
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Post by prisoner_1079 »

Wait so does this mean I'm a complete and total n00b for using Model Master Liquid Cement for Plastic Models?

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starmanmm
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Post by starmanmm »

No... I use that on plastic. Love it.

Superglue or Epoxie is what I use for resin.
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Re: I use

Post by AbsoluteSciFi »

mightymax wrote:
As far as cleanup of the ruling pen. Really I seldom ever get any glop on them. when I do get a little dried melted styrene on them I simply open the apature a little wider and run my #11 blade through it and it pops right off.

As far as how it works. I think it works great. I load up the pen and place it where I want to start the glue application. I then pull it back along the seam and the glue flows out of the pen and into the seam.
I have a touch and flow and another bottle type applicator. My problem with the TnFlow is it is long and gangly and there are times I have lost control of it and the tool goes places I did not want it to. Couple that with the fact that if you pick up a TnFlow the glue forms a globule at the tip. This means as soon as I touch the seam I feel I have to much glue!
Also when my TnFlow runs dry I sometimes have a problem getting it to refill with glue.

Nope my drafting pen is irreplaceable.

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Have you considered a quill pen? The are dirt cheap and have many heads in a calligraphy set, all metal and won't wear out easily. Just dip into the tenax, or weld of your choice, then apply bearing down. Pen point accuracy!
The only thing I would watch out for is the tip of some quills are very sharp, and can score the plastics. But there are flatheaded quills, made for thicker apps.
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Post by Kylwell »

Rulling pens (also sometimes known as bow pens) are easier to clean and virtually indestructible. They're just a touch difficult to find some days.

& yes, I tried some of my calligraphy nibs, they don't hold as much and if you're unlucky enough to suck up some of the liquid styrene you end up leaving the nib in solvent to clean it.

With a rulling pen you just open it up and wipe or scrape the gunk out.
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AbsoluteSciFi
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Post by AbsoluteSciFi »

Very true, I was thinking more of Rapidograph pens, which are not easy to clean, but come in many sizes...
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Post by Glorfindel »

Mr. Badwrench wrote:I use a tiny hypodermic syringe for most applications. But a brush comes in handy quite often too. Sometimes I apply glue by knocking the bottle over and gluing everything on the table into a big, gooey heap.
No joke....I just did that with Tamiya Extra Thin about two weeks ago. History does indeed repeat itself! :D
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Post by iSteve »

prisoner_1079 wrote:Wait so does this mean I'm a complete and total n00b for using Model Master Liquid Cement for Plastic Models?

http://www.kitkraft.biz/files/images/d_73017.jpg
I've been using CA now for about the last 10 years or so for just about everything - gluing and filling mostly - on styrene. But I've been wondering if it wouldn't be such a bad thing to go back to the old school of "plastic cement" to kill two birds, as it were. I figure if I used the regular plastic cement, I can skip the "fill the seam" part because once dry, I can just sand off the excess and I'm done.

Thoughts?
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Post by Kylwell »

AbsoluteSciFi wrote:Very true, I was thinking more of Rapidograph pens, which are not easy to clean, but come in many sizes...
And will be attacked by most liquid cements. The bodies are ABS usually.
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jpolacchi
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by jpolacchi »

Too bad MEK was taken off the shelves.It was great for melting styrene and ABS together.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by Kylwell »

jpolacchi wrote: Tue May 15, 2018 2:59 pm Too bad MEK was taken off the shelves.It was great for melting styrene and ABS together.
and highly toxic.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by jpolacchi »

Well,you aren't supposed to drink it,wash your hands with it or stick your nose inside the can and inhale it.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by Kylwell »

Yes but far too many people used it in less that adequate ventilation. You can still pick it up in hardware stores if you really need a fix.
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jpolacchi
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by jpolacchi »

Well,it always takes a stupid or careless person to ruin things for everyone else.I haven't looked in a while,but I don't believe it is carried in stores in California anymore(I could be wrong).There's some other "substitute" at least for ABS.I'm not sure if it will work on styrene too?I know you can use the solvent used for welding acrylic on styrene,but it realy melts it(more than MEK).
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by Kylwell »

Use methylene chloride instead.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by jgoldader »

I just lost a brush trying to use it to apply Plastruct cement. The bristles were synthetic but the stock wasn’t, and... :(

Can anybody recommend a fine brush (like a detail brush) that might work? Just looking on Amazon & such hasn’t been fruitful. Thanks!
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by Kylwell »

I use a #1 student grade sable brush.
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jgoldader
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by jgoldader »

Kylwell wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 5:43 pm I use a #1 student grade sable brush.
Wood brush, metal... uh... collar(?), Kylwell? Should I look for anything special like that?
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by Kylwell »

jgoldader wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 9:20 pm
Kylwell wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 5:43 pm I use a #1 student grade sable brush.
Wood brush, metal... uh... collar(?), Kylwell? Should I look for anything special like that?
Wood handle, metal collar. Nothing special and nothing expensive. Royal is the name on the brush I'm currently using. By using a natural bristle I avoid finding out which synthetic melts in the glue i use.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

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jpolacchi
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by jpolacchi »

I can't get "real MEK" in California let alone Acetone, White/Mineral sprits, Lacquer thinner and other solvents that would be useful They have EPA approved replacements and I am doubting their use or effectiveness. I'd have to drive to Nevada to get it or Oregon.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by publiusr »

Repurposed plastic seems on the horizon
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-plastic-v ... ducts.html

A team of Washington State University researchers developed a simple and efficient way to convert polylactic acid (PLA), a bio-based plastic used in products such as filament, plastic silverware and food packaging to a high-quality resin.

"We found a way to immediately turn this into something that's stronger and better, and we hope that will provide people the incentive to upcycle this stuff instead of just toss it away," said Yu-Chung Chang, a postdoctoral researcher in the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a co-corresponding author on the work. "We made stronger materials just straight out of trash. We believe this could be a great opportunity."
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by publiusr »

Now we see why plastic yellows with age
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-plastics-yellow.html

Plastic breakthroughs:

https://phys.org/news/2022-09-breakthro ... rsion.html
A team of researchers led by Meenesh Singh at University of Illinois Chicago has discovered a way to convert 100% of carbon dioxide captured from industrial exhaust into ethylene, a key building block for plastic products.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-mathemati ... ealth.html
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Re:

Post by Rocketeer »

iSteve wrote: Mon May 18, 2015 12:13 am
prisoner_1079 wrote:Wait so does this mean I'm a complete and total n00b for using Model Master Liquid Cement for Plastic Models?

http://www.kitkraft.biz/files/images/d_73017.jpg
I've been using CA now for about the last 10 years or so for just about everything - gluing and filling mostly - on styrene. But I've been wondering if it wouldn't be such a bad thing to go back to the old school of "plastic cement" to kill two birds, as it were. I figure if I used the regular plastic cement, I can skip the "fill the seam" part because once dry, I can just sand off the excess and I'm done.

Thoughts?
Using super glue makes me nervous because of its brittleness and because of the potential for a hazy "fog" to appear on the surface near the joint. For pre-paint assembly, I usually use liquid glues, mostly Testors in the bottle. For post-paint assembly, i usually use five-minute epoxy.

If you use liquid cement for gluing halves together (on, say, a bomb or a leg) you can squeeze it together and get a bit of liquified plastic oozing out. Sand that off after it's dry, and Bob's your uncle. However, hot primers (Tamiya) will sometimes attack the joint, causing the seam to re-appear as a shallow depression.

Many people recommend using super glue with baking soda for filling. It's easy to sand and quick to harden, but I don't do it, because it doesn't hold up in the long term. i have a heavily customized 1940 Ford I built maybe thirty years ago using super glue and baking soda as a filler, and the filled areas have ugly-looking oily stains coming through the paint.
Last edited by Rocketeer on Sat Oct 08, 2022 8:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
jpolacchi
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by jpolacchi »

I don't particularly care to use super glue as a filler at all.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by seam-filler »

I dislike CA intensely and only use it when I really have to. When I tried using it as a filler (with baking soda) but even if the joint survived more than a few months, I was never able to make the joint look truly seamless - it just doesn't take paint the same way as the surrounding material.

While the tensile strength of CA is great, it's shear strength is poor. I mean really poor. Wherever possible/practical I'll use an epoxy glue over CA to hold dissimilar materials together any time.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by Bellerophon »

I recall I tried the baking soda thing once and got a face full of fumes. That was enough for me!

But before that I was getting good results strengthening putty with it. Bondo putty is fine for filling in depressions, not so great for building up shapes because it's crumbly. But the dried putty is porous so it soaks up CA, and a nice hard composite forms.

I also mix CA with sawdust sometimes to back up a weak joint, but like the baking soda thing, it involves a lot of CA going off suddenly.
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Re: Styrene cements and construction

Post by jpolacchi »

Hands down I'll use the Devcon 5 min. steel-filled epoxy over superglue and putty/bondo filler. The 2-part Apoxy is great too and there are other 2-part epoxy sculpting clays on the market as well.
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