I have two Walthers HO scale Canadian Pacific Difco air dump cars kits (these older kits) come with hook horn couplers and plastic wheel sets ) that according to the assembly instruction sheet I need cyanocrylate type glue for glueing metal to metal parts and in this case, plasic to metal parts as a part of the car body is weighted die cast metal.
I have Tamya extra thin plastic cement and BSI insta-cure gap filling medium 5-10 second glue that is labeled as cyanoacrylate glue as well. Would the later work and, know of any hobby stores in Canada that sell cyanoacrylate type glue, and what do you recommend and use? Reading the instructions as its not clear as what areas or parts I need to glue plastic to metal though. I will have to start from here to see where I go from here.
Now that you say that, prehaps I can find that at walmart or ither store. But with so many varieties its hard to choose one that is specific for scale modeling.
Canadian Tire carries several types of ca, including at least one which also works with engineering plastics - regular ca does not.
For ordinary ca, I use Krazy Glue, which works well with most metal-to-plastic joints or other combinations of dissimilar materials. Reasonably priced compared to some of the products meant for “hobby use”.
The version which works with engineering plastic is from LePages, and consists of a tube of ca, and a marker-style applicator for the activator, which is used to prep one of the surfaces of engineering plastic to be mated. It will also work with any ordinary ca, and the container is considerably larger than the accompanying one of ca, supplied with the kit.
In most cases, material specifically for hobby use is more expensive than the same stuff used for general purposes.
If you’re joining styrene plastic to styrene plastic, use a solvent-type cement - there are several hobby brands, but MEK (methyl-ethyl-ketone) will do an equally good job. It’s available from paint suppliers (I get mine from a Sherwin-Williams wholesale dealer (not one of their paint-for-the-public outlets), and it’s available there only in gallon cans (or larger). The price is around $35.00, but compared to the same amount of a similar hobby-type solvent, it’s a bargain many times over.
For styrene, this will give you a much better bond than ca.
The key is in knowing what they do and how they work, and choosing tne adhesive and method that accomplish a given ‘task’ best.
The physical adhesive in all the CA products can be thought of as the same: a material that bonds to the faces of joints but not as strongly to ‘itself’ so it works best in precise gaps or between smooth fitting surfaces. It is therefore a thin liquid that won’t harden to a strong effective bond well if the parts don’t fit precisely.
If you have gaps to fill, you use the base CA as ‘cement’ and mix in an appropriate ‘aggregate’, as in concrete: for a hard bond this might be silica quartz ground fine or glass microspheres; for a more resilient bond, elastomer powder. for more control in applying small amounts of CA you can thicken it with something fine like cornstarch, or use a ‘thixotropic agent’ to make a gel. All the resulting bonds from the CA itself will be thin and relatively nonelastic, so if there is stress there is little ‘give’. This will advise you when you might want a different kind of bond.
Epoxies work by crosslinking a mass of material as well as bonding to surfaces, so they are best if you have gaps or relatively unfinished surfaces to join; they do NOT work well if squeezed out to a thin glueline. Again you can load them with structural aggregate, like metal powder to gain strength or the ability to ‘machine’ the hardened mterial (e.g. to drill or thread it).
Contact cements are like glorified rubber cement: you apply a thin layer diluted in solvent which becomes powerfully sticky as that solvent evaporates. It would take a long time for the solvent to work its way out of a joint between impervious materials, so you apply it and press the joint ‘wet’ to spread the film, take
Your doing a very good job of explaining to me of your know how the best you can overmod. I will look at the MRAs page on specific glues, and read ip on where to clamp and secure my model kits pieces when assembling. I will just start trying and make my own mistakes and if need be make a post showing my progress.
I would have to say your giving me the straightest dope there is. Its the best there is if you. get what I’m saying.
There will be a little Planogram section with various adhesives, in the paint department. It is not always in the same aisle in the department in different stores, but it will be there. Home Depot, Lowe’s, and presumably other big-box ‘home improvement’ stores have the same arrangement. Usually near the adhesive caulk shelves, too.
In a Walmart there may also be some in the crafts section, or in stationery/office supplies, if you only want the ‘commodity’ kind and there is nothing left in the paint-department glue section. But I don’t remember finding the ‘multiple small tubes for a dollar’. That sometimes shows up in supermarkets and local ‘chain’ hardware stores like Ace, and in places like Harbor Freight that are set up with supply chains to low-cost manufacturers.
I do not know the specific Canada-only equivalents that stock this kind of thing, but there are people here who will know.
Note that fairly often a store manager will stock something ‘special’ for you if there is a chance others will want it too.