In my quest for less toxic and drive the wife out of the house structure cements I’ve sniffed Ambroids’s “Safe Weld” non-toxic/safe for kids cement. It’s got an orange/citrus scent which is quite pleasant. (sound like a professional “huffer” 
Has anyone here used it yet on structures and bridges?******* I’d especially be interested to know if parts stay together when handling afterwards (days afterwards) and if it eats small detail parts like Micro Engineering bridge pieces, etc.******* Finally, does anyone know what the actual base chemical that’s used to weld plastic? *******Possibly, (according to my LHS, “Pro-Weld” and the other Ambroid cements may no longer be available as Ambroid only shipped this product to them this time. Thanks.
I’ve never heard of this product, but in my experience any adhesive that’s labeled as safe for kids doesn’t stick very well at all. Sort of like Elmer’s School Glue, which was so benign that it could be eaten without making one sick.
By law, the label on the product must list the solvent(s) and active ingredient(s) contained therein, so read the label instead of just sniffing it. The label should also indicate the uses for which it is intended; i.e., use to stick wood, metal, paper, plastics.
EDIT: Ambroid has a web site. According to them, Safe Weld is a liquid plastic adhesive for styrene. If it’s like most other styrene welders, that’s all it will stick to.
I have used a lot of different makes of “plastic welder” and they all work about the same. These are the bottles of thin clear liquid for gluing styrene plastic, usually with a brush in the cap. They are active organic solvents (MEK or methyl chloride or lacquer thinner) which dissolve the styrene into a soft sticky goo. You press the parts together, they stick, the solvent evaporates and the plastic turns hard again. Apply the plastic welder to the back side of joints and capillary action draws it deep into the joint, where it welds the plastic together.
I never noticed much odor from any of them, or much difference in the odor from one brand to another. The tiny bottles from the LHS cost a few bucks. For not much more money you can buy a quart can of MEK at the hardware store and that will keep you in plastic welder forever.
Be careful not to spill the stuff. In addition to dissolving styrene plastic, it will dissolve lacquer, varnish, paint, shellac, linoleum, asphalt tile, and a lot of other stuff. Makes quite a mess.
Ingredients apparently are NOT required by law. (At least in my state.) This label has NO label information whatsoever concerning it’s chemical make up/ingredients. I have enough sense to read before sniffing. Just not enough sense not to sniff I will call the 800 # tomorrow and see what I can find out. *******This Ambroid product has been on the market for at the very least several months now (maybe the better part of a year?) but I haven’t heard or read any user reviews yet. *******By the way, neither Tenax nor Testors lists their ingredients either. (Please see edit below)… Most people only seem to be able to determine whether their glues contain MEK or Toulene or…whatever from experience and…sniffing. *******I agree, Cacole, that kid friendly glues have not served me well in the past and that experience gives me some doubts regarding “Safe Weld”. Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I would like to see if I can get some feedback before cracking open the bottles though. Edit: I went to my bench and looked at all of my older bottles. One Testors bottle did list MEK as the primary ingredient while one other did not. So this seems to not always be the case. Jeez…how’s a guy supposed to know. Anyway, NONE of my Tenax bottles purchased over several years have any ingredients listed at all. Anyway, I’d like to keep this thread addressing the new product “Safe Weld” only, please as there are many threads discussing the older products in the archives. Thanks.
Hi Dave. I’ve noticed a vast and obvious difference in scents from various cements and have also had mixed results from different products. I have had little success with Tenax (which has almost no odor) but great success with Testors which is VERY potent fume wise. I’m always amazed that some folks don’t notice the difference but Testors totally fills our house with potent fumes while Tenax welcomes working with my face directly over the work. Ambroid Pro-Weld was closer to Tenax (for me) than Testors in low odor so I can’t understand why some people don’t notice the differences. I guess it’s a personal tolerance thing. Anyway, I’d really like to keep this thread focused on user reviews (if there are any) to “Safe Weld” only as there are many overview threads regarding the other cements. Been enjoying your blog on a regular basis and our past correspondence.
Sorry for being the principal poster on my own thread! But, I just found a user review on internetmodeler.com of december 2001 giving the Safe Weld a good review, directly comparing it to Pro Weld. The main difference reported was that the “squeeze through gap filling” technique that sometimes works with Pro Weld doesn’t work with the Safe Weld. (too thin, not “hot” enough to melt the plastic along both sides of the glued seam to squeeze out) but that the joint held well. It took longer than Pro Weld to set up.******* Apparently this cement HAS been around for much longer than a year or so.******* On this site and starshipmodeling (or similar name) dot com, several posters expressed dislike for various scents and fume levels with various cements. Interestingly, Tenax bothered one of them and they thought Testors was pleasant smelling! I find it as strong as acetone or industrial strength MEK so this definitely varies from user to user.******* I’ll see if other user reviews are forthcoming from members of this forum. If not, I’ll have to just give it a try and report back. I’ll wait a bit though before losing my return of product privilledges with my LHS. The user review mentioned big doubts that a citrus orange smelling product would work but he claimed it did. Over to you guys…anyone used it and found that their structures held together with repeated handling over time? Thanks.
I bought a tube of the “Orange Scented” Ambroid Safe Weld product a couple of years ago.
I used it extensively in assembling buildings and car kits with no issues. The Safe Weld did just that and welded a variety of styrene plastics together.
When the Ambroid finally ran out I bought a tube of Testors and, other than the scent, have not seen any difference.
If the smell is an issue for you ( My wife’s family owned an automobile body shop, so for her paint & glue smells remind her of home! ) then the Ambroid product may be the way to go.
My $.02.
Mark Gosdin
After the night when I took a dremel tool to a Chooch resin cast stone wall, and filled the basement and upstairs of the house with a truly astounding odor, my wife no longer mentions the smell of various glues and cements. She now realizes it could be much much worse.
This may be a very obvious tip but if you happen to have a spray booth that is vented to the ourdoors, it is also a good location to do the most obnoxious smelling gluing and cementing, with the blower fan on. It may not be protecting you and your lungs totally, since I suspect your face is closer to the work when gluing than it is when painting, but it does prevent the odor from filling the room.
Dave Nelson
Thanks for your user “review” and response Mark. Sounds good. I’m about to call Ambroid and see what the base ingredient(s) is/are. Your success is very encouraging! I wonder why more folks haven’t used this product or posted about it (just about anywhere!?) if it works as advertised. I hadn’t even heard of it until I “tripped” over it on the Ambroid site and then in my LHS.******* Dave, I haven’t been able to “justify” the purchase of a spray booth yet as I’m still hand painting only and the $300-400+ cost needs to be deferred for awhile. I’m also a bearded fellow and masks are not sealed properly with beards. So, so far, my quest has been for healthier/less fume-y cements. If the “Safe Weld” works well and is truly non-toxic I will have found my product of choice, I guess. I am using a powerful portable fan behind me to blow the majority of fumes out of a window directly in front of my work for now. (The Testors cement was so powerful though that it lost the battle! I even glued outdoors and the fumes were still too much for me. *******Thanks again guys for the reports and responses. It was a hard decision to give up the use of that product as buildings I’ve built 20 yrs. ago still hold up to handling and moving but with age and migraine sensitivities it’s time to find something else. *******I’m about to embark on my lst large and expensive kit builds (Walther’s Milwaukee Station and Micro Engineering City Viaducts) so wanted to be sure it would be effective and safe (with the lack of melting of small parts), etc.
Hi guys. I promised a report after I tried Ambroid’s citrus scented non toxic “Weld Safe” cement.******* Last night, I glued up two older/cheap kits: A model power water tower (all of 3 pieces!) and a signal tower roof. I rubber banded everything after gluing (after initial reassuring tugs on the glued joins) and let 'em sit for 12 hrs. They both survived two purposeful drops of about 1 ft. to a carpeted over wood/linoleum floor and they both held together perfectly. The joints seem to be solid as a rock.******* I also purposely let cement bush over detail moldings (wood grain, slats, etc.) and although there was a little sheen it wasn’t “jump out at you glossy” AND none of the details were distorted or melted, etc. They could still be easliy painted over later and look fine. *******The cement wicked into interior joins perfectly via capillary action yet was just viscous enough to “see” easily where it was going. The kits held together pretty well upon initial tugging but after that I rubber band clamped everything and added a touch more cement. Probably overdoing it but…so far I’m very happy! I may have FINALLY found my cement! ********I encourage everyone to at least give this a try. If it IS truly non-toxic, doesn’t offend you or other members of your family and holds great, etc. I encourage you all to check it out. *******My last test will be to try it on finely detailed/small parts and see if anything melts or distorts. If it doesn’t, I’ll start a City Viaduct kit. Hope this user review is helpful to you guys and as always I thank you for your responses. Still haven’t called Ambroid yet, about the ingredients. I will soon. I agree with Cacole that the ingredients should always be listed on every cement but that doesn’t seem to be universal in every state or within the industry’s requirements. Cheers, Capt. G.
This may be something you’ve already thought of, but maybe a box (window) fan in your window might be more effective if it will fit. They’re $20-$30. Anyway, it’s a thought.
Ed
Thanks Ed. I did consider the window fan, but we have a strange kitchen window that requires the drop down/angled pane to remain within the window frame so no spot for a fan. In our living room we have NO opening windows! It’s an older, owner built home. However, with this cement, if it works out, there are almost no fumes whatsoever but I’ll continue to use good ventilation as a reasonable precaution.
While the ingredients may not be required on the product label, I think that each company who manufactures potentially toxic materials is required to provide you a Material Safety Data Sheet (or MSDS) if you request it. Further, some of this information is available on-line. For example, the Testor Company has many products listed at http://hazard.com/msds/gn.cgi?query=TESTOR&whole=whole&start=0. The trick for the search is to be able to come up with the exact product name.