I really like styrene, but this is a problem I can’t solve. The picture shows one of the beams of my hanging bridge model. The beam is around 6 mm wide. The styrene I used is very thin, 010" (0,25 mm)
The problem is that the beam is not straight. The pieces are straight before I glue them. It seems that the styrene is reacting to the glue. I use ethyl acetate. How can I build the beam so it will be straight? Must I choose a different material? Different glue? Hold the pieces when drying? Less glue?
I’ve never had a bowing problem with styrene. I use ModelMaster liquid cement when working with styrene–very similar to Testor’s liquid cement for plastics. It comes in a bottle with a long, needle-like applicator. Unfortunately I don’t know the chemical compound–there seems to be no information on the bottle, but it works very well without distorting the styrene when I work on it.
Styrene can easily deform when being cemented together, especially long thin pieces. When gluing them you need to weight or clamp them down or secure them in some manner so that they can’t deform while the cement dries. Allow to fully dry for at least 12 hours, 24 hours is better, before removing the weight or clamps.
For the already warped piece, you can try adding more of the cement to the joints and clamping or weighting it in a straightened position, you might have to repeat this until it staightens out.
Do you know both Evergreen and Plastruct have I beams ready to use? I seem to remember some European manufacturer that also made plastic shapes, if the two I mentioned are not available over there.
It looks like too much glue all at once to me. I used to have that problem when using the brush applicator that came in the glue bottle. Now I use a small fine paint brush, and use that brush only for liquid cements.
You may also have to wait until the first side dries good before gluing the second side on.
Faller cement should be available in most Swedish hobby shops that carry plastic models. If you live close to the bridge to Denmark, Copenhagen has several good hobby shops.
I’ve used ordinary lacquer thinner as a styrene cement for years, with no problems, It’s cheap and effective. I buy it by the gallon, as I also use it to thin lacquer-based paints. Simply decant it into containers suitably-sized for the intended use. I use an appropriately-sized brush when using it as a cement.
A very popular video series shows in vol #4 making a bridge out of styrene. He uses MEK and a very small applicator. He says the Testers with the applicator and the MEK are very similar
