i am finally getting near the bottom of my last bottle of testor’s liquid plastic cement. (the price on the label reads 29 cents so you can imagine how long it has lasted me. i am just curious as to how well regular automotive lacquer thinner works in place of the testor’s product…
if any of you have PERSONAL experience substituting lacquer thinner for the regular stuff, i would appreciate hearing about your results and getting your opinion.
I bought one bottle of Testors (the little square one, with a brush in the cap) over 40 years ago. When It was used-up, I bought a gallon of lacquer thinner, and many gallons later, I still use it as my preferred cement for styrene. I pour some into that little square bottle whenever it needs refilling, but its also useful for thinning lacquer-based paints, cleaning my airbrush, stripping paint from brass locomotives, de-greasing metal parts, and prepping styrene when using contact cement. For the latter, I pour some lacquer thinner into a sealable glass jar, then apply it to the styrene with a 2" brush - this prevents too much of the contact cement’s solvent from being drawn to the styrene, yielding a better bond.
If your Testors lasted that long, a pint of lacquer thinner should last you a lifetime. I did custom painting for many years, and still do so for friends, but I also like to build large structures, (I buy styrene in 4’x8’ sheets) so I still go through a lot of it.
Interesting! I guess I go through a bottle of the Testers liquid cement in about a year, so have never thought about it being such a high price to pay for the stuff. However, Testers is selling this stuff in a plastic container with a long thin tube now, similar to CA applicators, at a $5 plus price and I’m finding the bottle difficult to find (nearest hobby shop is 50+ miles away. I will be trying this out! Thanks for the tip!
Probably not a new idea, however I actually keep two bottles of this stuff around. One with the brush as supplied from Testeor’s and another with the brush cut down so there are maybe 8-10 strands in the brush, allowing very precise application of small amounts of glue. I have been using this modification for so long, I can’t remember where/when I heard about doing this.
I would only add to this discussion that now and again there are still particular applications and uses where I find the more viscous, syrup type Testors cement to be appropriate and useful. Not all, but some. I am fortunately long since past my childhoold practice of trying to apply that kind of cement directly from the tube. I sure ruined a lot of neat structure, airplane, automobile and dinosaur (remember those kits?) model kits in my youth that way.
The Testor’s “Model Masters” described is different formula than the “watery” Testor’s liquid. The Model Masters w/ the needle applicator is thicker, less viscous cement very similar to my favorite, Faller Xpert. These don’t dry as quickly and allow additional working time for repositioning and also find far less messy especially on critical joints. I do use the liquid for bonding of larger areas or buildup or reinforcing styrene as described by doctorwayne, MEK, laquer thinner does work the same.
i quickly learned that using the brush in the bottle cap is kind of like trying to brush your teeth with a mop. i use a 3/0 sable brush with a pointed tip to apply the thin liquid. if you unload the brush properly after dipping it in the liquid, you can get a tiny amount applied to just about any location. (cataract surgery and good lighting help this a lot)
Me too. I bought a pint can of MEK from the local hardware store for $5. It makes good strong bonds on styrene and that pint will last the rest of my life. I pour it into an empty Plastic-Weld bottle. Get some now, before the Greenies outlaw it.
