I have always used Testors Liquid Cement for assemblying kits but picked up some Plastruct Plastic Weld last week for another project and decided to try it out on a Branchline boxcar kit last night.
Well, I don’t know about the rest of you but I found Plastruct WAY TOO aggresive for delicate work: It would melt and evaporate the surface so quickly that any pre-drilled holes started filming over and the part would no longer fit into the hole. In fact, it fried the brush I was using to apply the Plastruct with. Does Plastruct have that much higher concentration of MEK than the Testor’s; the latter containing “acetates and methyethylketone”???
The Plastruct was recommended in the Highliner assembly instructions. Are there any assembly tips & tricks you can share for using the stuff and what brushes to use/avoid. If I can get away with using the Testor’s on the Highliner kit I will - just for the extra working time.
So it looks like Plastruct is for bonding dissimilar plastics together and Bondene is more for styrene-to-styrene bonding, which - IIRC from a discussion with someone at an LHS - has a longer working time. Does that seem right?
I’m not sure what this sentence means. If you’re assembling something along the lines of “insert Tab A into Hole B”, then you should assemble the stuff first and then barely touch the wet brush to the (dry) joint and capillary action will draw the solvent in and weld the parts. Applying liquid to the two parts first and then sticking them together might end up as you described.
I’ve never fried a brush. For delicate areas, small brush; large areas, large brush. For very delicate areas, I have a micro-pipette that delivers tiny little droplets of solvent upon contact with the joint.
I don’t know what to tell You…I have been using Plastruct Plastic Weld orange bottle for a very long time and don’t have any problem’s with it. But I believe I learned a few things. One being when gluing small parts together less is more. Put a dab on both pieces You want to join…don’t fill the hole with it. You can coat both pieces of a long part and it will appear dry, but when touched together, they will bond just like contact cement. I also use it on all plastic’s, styrene, ABS, together and like materials…no problem. My scratch/ bash bridge project is styrene and ABS plastic all mixed plastic’s and Did not have a problem with the glue and it is extremely strong,should be, I have to handle it a lot while setting up the abutments and piers.
The brush You are using to apply it with, is probably a synthetic…lacquer thinner will probably glue it together also. I use nothing but Camel hair and Red sable brushes and don’t have any problems with that. I also read that post You linked to,(before I joined the forums Btw) and I must say…I do not agree with what they said…My opinion only of course…only about buying the MEK in quarts, but You can get lacquer thinner to do the same thing do I agree with.
The Plastruct Plastic Weld label states “multi-purpose…for bonding Plastruct ABS, Styrene, Butyrate and Acrylic to itself or each other.” I always assumed that “each other” included styrene to styrene.
That said, I don’t like it. It seems to be very thick and doesn’t flow well. It also quickly develops a big wad on the bristles of the small brush I use to apply it. I have had better luck with the Testors liquid, Ambroid Pro-Weld when I could find it, or Micro Mark Same Stuff which actuially appears to be the “same stuff” as the Pro-Weld right down to the packaging.
I have not yet experimented with the “get it by the gallon” lacquer thinner or MEK which someone will inevitably recommend.
I use 100% MEK for my styrene work. You can’t get a higher concentration than that. I’ve never had it fry a brush or fill in holes or whatever. It just works.
I do use a natural brush. I think I bought mine back before “un-natural” brushes were available. Used it for decades. Like I said, no “frying”.
The ONLY problem I ever had with MEK is, when the bottle gets “old”, it sucks up water out of the air and gets diluted. And won’t bond anymore. Which is kind of an “opposite” problem.
I appreciate the responses, fellas. The brush I used was natural hair. It seemed that something on the brush handle was not MEK compatible and smeared onto the bristles on the brush; leaving them useless.
The brush that comes with the bottle works fine. It’s just too large for fine work.
I have only ever used Testors. I have not had problems and it performs up to my expectations. There was a rumor that Testors was going to change their formula, and I bought over 50 bottles of it in a panic. I hope it has a long shelf life.
I was a big proponent for lacquer thinner as a cement for styrene, but the bastardised version now being sold in Canada will not work at all as a cement for styrene.
I switched to MEK, which works well, but evapourates too quickly when used on large surface areas, even when applied with a 2" brush. At $40.00 a gallon (and a puny U.S. gallon at that), it’s about twice as much as I was paying for lacquer thinner, back in the days when it still worked as a cement for styrene. It’s still cheaper than buying styrene cement meant for modelling, though.
When I want to glue a large area…I scuff both surfaces and apply adhesive also to both surfaces…even when slightly dried the Plastruct/MEK will still stick together…but just like contact cement, You only have one shot to position the pieces.
Here in the US…they sell Lacquer thinner in many of the big box stores, some of which is the mild solution. Automotive paint/body supply outfits still sell( and always will sell, I was told) the real lacquer thinner. I use it for many things so I buy the 5 gal size which is 34.00 US. A one gallon can of the same…is 17.00. Figure that one out. The 5gal size has a double wall type can though to minimize evap…I’m just about out, after 6yrs. I checked the price and it went up 2 dollars. The kind I use is prohibited for sale in California and Canada.
A little over a year ago, I used Plastruct Plastiweld to scratch build a large structure. The project involved bonding 0.020" styrene brick sheet to 0.040" styrene brick sheet. Plastiweld worked like a charm, performing like contact cement, but I had to work fast because Plastiweld dries fast. At times, I had to overcoat the surfaced to be bonded. But, overall, I was satisfied. However, on small surfaces such as gluing windows and doors, I found that Plastiweld did not hold well, so I reverted to Testors Liquid Cement in the oddly shaped black plastic bottle with the needle nose applicator.
Just yesterday, I started a project using DPM Modulars. On these smaller surfaces, Plastiweld did not work so well, making it difficult to hold pieces together. However, I do find Plastiweld useful in its capillary action as it soaks into connecting surfaces, forming a tighter bond.
My conclusion about Plastruct Plastiweld is that it has its place, but it is not the answer to every gluing problem. It seems to work best in bonding large surfaces together and in filling spaces of connecting pieces through its capillary action.
It has been My experience when working with plastic’s such as DPM, is to lightly sand both contact surfaces with 180 grit sand paper, then join together, even using the capillary action. The sanded surface opens up the shiney surface of the plastic and gives the adhesive a head start on the weld/melt. Done that way, it produces an even stronger bond. A lot of people don’t want to take the time to do that, but it only takes a few seconds to lightly sand it. Testers glue is more of a surface adhesive, not a weld. It will in some cases appear to work better…but I guarantee it is not as strong. I started out many years ago using Testers tube glue, it was messy and I guess ok for the time…Then started using DOPE, paint & glue…was great! But very aggressive etc. They took it off the market due to hazards to Your health which is true, also got You high. Not long after Testers came out with liquid glue…which was also very good for building models and no mess…but…almost all the models that I used it on, cars, trucks, airplanes, in time, parts would come off from handling…it did not weld like others adhesive’s do and that is what I don’t like about using it. It’s more of a young modelers cement that gotta get it done now use than a Fine Scale Modelers use. There are so many adhesives and specialty products out there basically with the same ingrediants, that many will do the job…with some patience and experience with using them…there’s the key!
I don’t put the handle of my brush into the MEK, just the bristles and, usually, the ferrule.
I wonder if there could be some sort of glue that the manufacturer of the brush used to keep the bristles in the ferrule. It’s my impression that “real” brushes are built such that the ferrule uses mechanical pressure to hold the bristles, not glue.
The one I use I bought years ago for brush painting. It’s a Grumbacher 626-R. Made in Ireland by leprechauns. There’s one on Amazon currently for sale for $8.
Frank, I’ll give that a try. I always sand the corners of DPM structures but I did not sand the connecting parts of the modular wall sections before attaching the pilasters.
Not clear to me why Plastruct makes Bondene when PlasticWeld can be used on similar or dissimilar product. I get great results with it. Always liked Tanax but my LHS doesn’t stock it because he says it shrinks/evaporates once the bottle is opened. Sure enough, I checked when I got home and found that I had less than I recalled in the bottle I had.
Once opened, the content does shrink. And with use, it gets a little cloudy, or even a lot cloudy. Bits of the structure dissolve on the wet brush and get deposited back into the bottle. Like getting peanut butter in the jelly jar.
I have been using Faller Super-Expert styrene glue I got at Southside Trains
at Trainfest. I have used Plasticweld in the past but have had control issues
using the large brush in the cap.Faller has a cleanable hollow metal tip that allows more precise control of the glue.I have built several Walthers buildings and a scratch-built firehouse with superb results. I’m sold on the stuff and no evaporation issues since the bottle is self contained .
