Tenax-7R Plastic Welder has been out of stock at Walthers since last summer. Is it still being made?
I’ve looked for it off and on. Haven’t found any. Gave up.
I use MEK for my needs.
Ed
I dunno. I use MEK which I buy in the paint dept of Walmart in quart cans.
Yep, same here, MEK is JUST like Tenax, if not the same.
Mike.
2-3 years ago there was a rumor going around that Tenax-7r was going off the market, as the couple who owned it was getting a divorce. This led to folks making a run on LHS’s and eBay sellers listing bottles for sky-high prices. What came out of all this is unknown to me, and I have no idea of what is fact or ‘Internet’ myth.
A few years before, Micro-Mark had someone ‘reverse engineer’ the product and they came out with ‘Same Stuff’. They are still selling it in packs of two bottles for the price of one bottle of Tenax-7r.
Micro-Mark has done similar things over the years when they cannot get the ‘discount’ from a manufacturer that they want. NWSL tools used to be sold through Micro-Mark, and now Micro-Mark has copies of these tools branded under their own label.
I suspect the original Tenax-7r wound up in the same boat. For what it’s worth, I have both Tenax-7r and Same Stuff on my workbench - and they appear similar…
Jim
I believe Tenax-7R is mostly Methylene Chloride. It may contain some MEK. MEK is very good for welding polystyrene, but the smell gives me a headahce. Some people prefer Lacquer thinner, acetone, or xylene.
I bought a bottle last year at Modeltrainstuff, now out of stock. It evaporates somewhere between the bottle and the styrene I want to use it on. Maybe I got a bad bottle?
It does evaporate quickly because Methylene Chroride is classified as a Volitile Organic Compound (VOC). I used to look for Chlorinated and BTEX VOC’s in my former life as an engironmental geolgist. VOC’s all evaporate pretty quickly.
I still have a half bottle of Tenax 7R in my tool box. I didn’t realize it was no longer on the market since I haven’t needed to look for a replacement yet.
Same stuff was invariably supposed to replace Ambroid Pro Weld, was My understanding and LHS owner of 50yrs. which contains Methylene Chloride and did a fine job on Styrene, Butyrate ABS & Acrylic and Same Stuff does not do what they claim as far as My experience and the reviews goes. Also I have found through My experience that Plastruct Plastic Weld, which also contains MEK, does a lot better job than Tenex7R ever did and does not evaporate as fast, also stronger. Will bond, all the material that Ambroid Pro Weld did. I still have Ambroid Pro Weld, bought a half case before they stopped making it. Lately (about 20yrs.) I have been using more Plastruct orange bottle found it to be even stronger than Ambroid.
To each their own…but I’ve built a lot of things in My 74yrs.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Frank, thanks for the tip. When my bottle of Tenax-7R runs out, I’ll hunt down some Ambroid Pro-weld
Pro-weld is gone. I now use Weld-on 3. Works great but is more toxic than Pro-weld but much much cheaper.
What the heck, people are recommending adhesives that are no longer on the market? What is actually available now?
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Plastruct-Plastic-Weld-Cement-p/pls-00002.htm
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Plastruct-Bondene-Cement-p/pls-00003.htm
I’ll miss Tenax. I’ll bet I went through fifty bottles over my modeling “career”.
I do have some “MEK substitute” from Home Depot to which I added about 10% Xylene (Toluene works better if you can find it). It works OK and I use it for non-critical work, such as inside bracing or large wall areas and such.
I did buy some of this to try but have not had a chance to check it out yet.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Faller-Super-Expert-Plastic-Glue-p/flr-170490.htm
I have heard good things about Tamiya extra thin cement as well but have no personal experience with it. I’ll get some soon.
Regards, Ed
Hello all,
I use Micor-Mark Same Stuff.
According to the label on Same Stuff does contain methylene chloride.
Which is chemically different than MEK (Butanone).
Not sure what materials you are trying to bond (cement).
To assemble models I use several different bonding agents including Same Stuff, two-part epoxy, cryanolite adhesive (CA) [Super Glue] and solder.
Hope this helps.
By no means am I trying to confuse the thread any more than it is…but…
Does any substance weld slippery engineered plastics like delrin very well?
http://www.masterbond.com/applications/bonding-acetal-plastics-industrial-adhesives
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Mostly what I have used Tanex 7R for is joining flat part kits together like buildings (like Walthesr ADM grain elevator ) or flat part train cars (Eel River for example).
Riogrande5761,
I did not mean to mislead You about the Ambroid Pro-weld, but if You re-read My post, I did say it was no longer available and that I bought a bunch while it was still being made.
For what You are working on, I would suggest using Plastruct Plastic Weld orange bottle, You have some working time in using it. If You have large surfaces to glue, You can put some on both pieces and not to worry if they start to evaporate, when put together, they will still bond. Then You can go ahead and brush more on in the seams, capillary action will do the rest. I did try to respond last night and after typing a very long msg. with some explainations of some adhesives for alternatives, CS.Trains timed out for some strange reason and I lost everything I typed. That put Me in a foul mood…so I said the heck with it.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Like Frank, I use Plastruct Bondene with the orange label, for both similar and dissimilar plastics. I found that Tanax evaporated in the bottle over time. A LHS near me doesn’t stock Tanax for that reason.
I have read with interest what everybody uses instead, but I am curious about the original question. Has anybody seen any definitive information that Tenax-7R is indeed officially off the market forever?