picked up an old faller B-230 sawmill… anybody have any experience with this one…building a layout for my little boy… (interactive layout)…
. just got done with a vintage vollmer gravel loader…slide the switch and he fills his coal cars with…black craft sand… works well…heck I like filling the cars too
anyway… what is the best glue you guys use to assemble …before I open the box of this classic, I want to make sure I have the right materials ready to go…hopefully the motor works and everything… its never been opened…
…new to this, but enjoying it… our layout is coming together nicely… I built a birch log train table( i am a woodworker)…
sooo need some advice…can you guys give me a basic…(BASIC) list of stuff I will need to assemble this old classic!!! thanks again…
First you will want to thoroughly wash and dry your model’s parts to remove any release agent or other film that may have settled on it.
Then you have a choice if you are going to paint it: you can paint before removing from the sprues or paint after removing form sprues or paint after assembly. There is no real correct way to do this part. Be sure to leave gluing surfaces blank from paint.
Then, use a SPRUE CUTTER for cutting parts from the spures. If you don;t have one, carefully use an exacto knife. Be sure to clean up any edges that need it.
Then I would “dry fit” pieces to be sure they will fit well, and that you have all parts…
Then you can assemble with CA or plastic glue. If you use CA, I suggest getting the slower action type as it gives you time to postion parts carefully before it bonds tightly. It gives you a few more seconds to position parts before it bonds them.
I’ll disagree with galaxy on the need to wash in order to remove mold release. I generally don’t do this with building kits and have never run into a problem painting them. Not to say it won’t happen, but a low probability event.
I do wash large parts when building rolling stock. But I work in narrowgauge, mostly, and have a considerable investment in time, materials, etc so tend to wash car sides and other larger parts where a paint defect could be obvious. Small parts, still generally not.
I’d prefer liquid plastic weld in some flavor for the glue. Ambroid and Plastruct are widely available, but they all perform similarly. If you get a thin tube applicator, that really helps keep things neat, too, although can be tedious to use.
Watch where you leave the bottle sitting. It’s very easy to knock it over and have a mess, especially tragic if it happens in the latter stages of construction! You can drill a block of wood to act as a bottle holder and lessen the chance of an accident.
Testor’s Model Master or Faller Xpert is my favorite, especially for long joints of wall/ corner seams. The Faller seems to allow for more time in positioning the parts. I perfer styrene cements over using CA. The CA can be a surface bond “brittle” joint as compared to a “welded” on using the Testor’s of Faller. The long “needle” applicator is quite helpful for placing glue and no need to worry about spills w/ these type of containers. Just need to periodically squeeze/ blow out the needle occasionally once placed upright. I find that the liquid glues can dry far too quickly when mating long or large joints. Brushing/ placing enough to help this or having to work too quickly can allow excess glue to get on the parts.
Don’t be afraid to paint those parts first, even if paint gets on the mating surfaces. They need to be dry fit as explained and the paint can be scraped/ sanded as you fit and position for glueing. A good trick to sanding long corner joints is to drag the part across fine wet or dry sandpaper on a solid flat surface. Do the dry fitting and assembly on a “solid” smooth surface. I like to use 3/4" MDF, a piese of glass, granite or marble floor tile etc. 90 degree assy blocks also help to square up the walls while glue sets. This way you can have a perfectly square structure with no wracking.
There are many kinds of glue for many different reasons. For a plastic model, you use plastic cement. LION likes the kind with the brush in bottle. Clamp or band the parts together and then brush the cement on the inside of the model, letting capillary action draw the cement into the joint.
For plastic kits, I use MEK (methyl ethyl ketone). I buy it in quart cans for about the same price as a small bottle of Tenax, or any of the other model cements. I found that buying the Right Clamps made by Coffman and sold through Micro-Mark to be a great investment. They hold your parts at 90° angles and have slots machined in them for applying the cement at the joint.
Me too. I bought a quart can of MEK from the paint dept at Wal Mart for $6 and it will last forever. The little bottles of plastic welder (Tenax, Ambroid, Testors, etc) cost $4.50 and don’t last all that long. The stuff all works by dissolving the polystyrene plastic into soft goo, which fuses together. Then the solvent evaporates and the soft goo turns back into hard polystyrene plastic. Properly done, a solvent welded joint can be as strong as the virgin plastic. Superglue won’t give as strong a joint.
Guard against spills. The solvents are VERY active and will dissolve linoleum, the model under construction, floor tiles, the top of your kitchen table, and many other things too. Don’t ask me how I know this.
You can apply the solvent to the back of the joint and capillary action will suck it into joint. The bottle cap brush is too big and fat for most work. A fine paint brush, or the eye of a sewing needle is good for transferring the tiny drops of solvent needed.
I always wash plastic models in warm soapy water before painting to remove any mold release compound and the always present finger prints. You can brush paint plastic models but I prefer to spray paint them. Rattle cans from the hardware store work fine if (like me) you lack an air brush.
Mike is right that it’s a pretty low probability event, but if it happens, oh man is it aggravating, to watch hours of work just peel off!
For me, I prefer Testors cement in the black “box” with the needle applicator. It does the same thing as MEK (soften the plastic and then evaporate), but it’s less toxic. Since I’ve had one container of the stuff which has lasted me almost 3 years, the “it’s much more expensive for that small bottle” argument doesn’t carry much weight with me.
I’ve accumulated an array of glues and adhesives. Each has its purpose, and its plusses and minuses. I also like the small bottles of Testors plastic cement with the brush in the bottle. It’s a convenient size, and the shelf life of the glue in the bottle matches up well with my model-building rate. It’s a good glue for plastic kits, which are generally made of styrene.
I use CA (cyanoacrylate, or Super Glue) for bonding dissimilar materials. For example, I put a strip of 3/16 square balsa wood along the inside joints in the corners of my buildings. This adds structural strength, and also closes any “light gaps” that would show through if I put lights in the building.
Aileen’s Tacky Glue is a great soft adhesive. It doesn’t bond to anything, but it holds very well. It’s my glue of choice for attaching paper images to the interior walls for detailing the inside of buildings.
Canopy cement, developed (I suppose) for model aircraft kits, dries clear. It’s great for plastic windows, where you don’t want a glue that will “craze” or discolor the window.
If you plan to paint the kit before you assemble it, which I would recommend, make note of where surfaces come together when you pre-fit the parts together. Don’t paint the joints. If you’re using spray paint, get some blue painters’ tape and mask the joints so you won’t overspray. Regardless of what glue you use, trying to bond painted joints will work poorly.
Me too, I think I bought every kind of glue to use for various projects. I tried the liquid watery glue for my “plastic” buildings and had no luck with it, I guess I’m not quick enough to get it lined up before it dries. I was a carpenter most of my life, I’m 68 and retired, but my knuckles and hands look like old potato spuds from banging them up and a bit of frostbite from time to time. But I use the old testers
Sorry, LION, but in my opinion the brush in the bottle is awful. It is hard to control when applying, leaves smears, and the brush eventually curls.
CA (Super glue or Crazy glue) is even worse for gluing plastic parts. Sets too fast and leaves residue.
For sure, avoid the stuff in the toothpaste tube.
The best stuff is Testors Model Master Liquid Plastic Adhesive in the odd shaped black plastic bottle with the needle nose applicator. Precise and easy to control the flow.
Frankly, I pretty much gave up on the thick tube-type plastic cements years ago. The results were often spotty, and frequently gave me little blobs that squeezed out between joints onto the surfaces. For plastic models, I use a liquid solvent type cement, like Tenax, Plasti-struct, or Testor’s, applied with a fine artist brush or a hypodermic srynge with the tip ground square. Got mine from friends who have to take Insulin. Wood and card models get adhesives like Ambroid, Duco, or Aliphatic Resins. I sometimes use CAs for dissimilar materials. I usually hold the joints together, either fingers or some kind of gimmicked up clamp jig, then apply the solvent. Sometimes I even wet the joining surfaces then bring them together in a kind of tack welding then add more glue to make the joint secure. Nice thing about the liquyid solvents it they dry rather quickly with a pretty strong bond. The bad thing is they dry rather quickly with a pretty strong bond. You pretty much have to get things lined up right the first time.
