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Best plastic adhesive?


Neddy

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When I rejoined the modelling world a year or two ago after a 40+ year absence I knew as much about modern tools and materials as Eric Pickles did about hang-gliding so I researched adhesives (amongst other things) and was recommended the DeLuxe Materials range, specifically their Roket Plastic Glue for .er.. plastic, and their Glue and Glaze for transparent plastic items.  Having found both to be OK I ran into a problem today with the Roket Plastic Glue in that the no-clog fine metal applicator nozzle had irretrievably clogged up.

 

Having found replacement nozzles are available but for the same price as a complete new bottle (!) I thought before buying either I'd ask the opinions of people who know a lot more about what's available than I do.

 

For plastic parts assembly, do I:-

 

(a) stick (sorry!) with DeLuxe Adhesives Roket Plastic Glue?

(b) stick with DeLuxe Materials but try another of their products instead?

(c) try something totally different?

 

Your advice would be really appreciated!

 

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For gluing styrene my go to is Tamiya Extra Thin.  The bottle includes a brush in the cap so you don't have to worry about clogging.

 

Lou in California.

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Horses for courses. Depends on the product. 'Styrene' seems to come in various forms. What works for one kit won't stick another.

My choices are MEK or cyano, or epoxy, or combinations thereof

Then again I build obscure stuff, which is often old and less forgiving.

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Both types of Tamiya glue get my thumbs-up. The Extra Thin is designed to be carefully run along the join of two parts and capillary action will easily make it fill the whole gap. If you brush it on one part and then add the second one, it will still work, but it not really what it's designed for. 

 

Cheers. 

 

Chris.   

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Thanks all for the valuable advice.  Tamiya Extra Thin it is then!

 

Digressing slightly, I've yet to find a Tamiya product that is anything but excellent.  Nice to have a brand you can rely on, innit?

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9 minutes ago, Neddy said:

Tamiya Extra Thin it is then!

Note, poster above have mentioned MEK short for Methyl Ethyl Ketone, 

You can buy MEK, Acetone and Ethyl Acetate quite easily, though not in little bottles..... 

 

the liquid glues are great, but not the only answer, I found doing some old Matchbox 76th armour that at times tube glue (I used the stuff from Airfix starter kits) was the answer, as it had both bit if grab, and some wiggle and gap filling properties, and it can be thinned with TET as well. 

The Matchbox kits were designed to be assembled with tube glue.  

Tube glue is plastic solvent with some added styrene BTW

 

It's worth not being too dogmatic about the process, as long as it works,  by this I mean if method A works, use it, but be aware of method B....    in the Matchbox case, the liquid glue wasn't have the right amount of grab,  a blob of tube glue on a bottle cap, applied with a fine brush, tweaked with some TET worked very well.

 

HTH

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Tube glue for me as first choice, I find the liquid cements especially that extra thin stuff , it has let me down too often, too weak for most joints leading to sprung seams and parts dropping off and yes I always ensure a plastic to plastic contact face. MEKPAK is the best commercial liquid cement I find.

 

Trouble is all the current tube glues today are still a bit too watery for me, I do have a supply of the old Airfix tubes whose viscosity is about right but as supply of such things I finite I now make my own by dissolving clear plastic runners in MEK, now I can make glue of any viscosity and be happy with a secure bond

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43 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

Tube glue is plastic solvent with some added styrene BTW

 

the Tamiya Extra Thin ( dark green cap) , Extra Thin quick setting (light green cap), and just plain Tamiya cement (white cap) are all excellent products. 

 

The Extra Thin varieties are all just solvents having just a different mix of ingredients. The Tamiya cement ( white cap ) while similar to the Extra Thin in solvent composition also contains dissolved styrene so it has similar properties to good old "tube glue" but is just not as viscous.  Tamiya also has a cement for ABS plastic as well.

 

Mr Hobby has their Mr. Cement Deluxe ( similar to Tamiya cement with white cap ), and Mr Cement S and SP ( similar to Tamiya Extra Thin and Extra Thin quick setting ) plus there is version having a wee bit of carbon black added, Mr Cement SPB which is sometimes handy to aid in showing where the cement as has applied and used. 

 

I have all of the above and they all work well. My current go to choice is Tamiya Extra Thin and I always have a bottle of the quick setting on hand as well. The Mr Cement SPB I have tried but I find of limited use.

 

Incidentally, Tamiya Air Brush Cleaner is exactly the same solvent mix as Tamiya Extra Thin Cement except it is available in a 250ml bottle at a much better price per ml than the much smaller bottle. I use it to refill my bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin - the tiny brush in the bottle is very handy.  The brush in the Tamiya cement ( white cap ) is much bigger than in the other types but is easily swapped for one of the smaller brushes from an empty bottle of Extra Thin.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

 

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Thanks again for your valuable knowledge and advice.  In return, I've found a way of unclogging the recalcitrant incredibly fine metal applicator (think hypodemic nerdle!)  with thanks to YouTube contributors.  Gripping said applicator with a pair of needle-nose pliers to act as a heatsink, I briefly ran it over a flame a few times.  It became red-hot within a second each time and something must have happened as it now works perfectly.  I'll use it up first before going onto TET.

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Extra thin cement has one problem: it tends to evaporate quickly.  That doesn't matter if you're holding parts together and running the glue into the joint, but not all joints work like that.  Revell's Contacta and Humbrol Liquid Poly aren't bad for the times when you need to place a dab of glue first and then add a part on top.  But I agree that the old-fashioned stuff in a squidgy tube has its place, especially for long joints that'll take a load.

 

At the same time, there's the super-strong ones - ProWeld, that sort of thing, made of methylene chloride.  They evaporate even quicker, but they're great for running into a joint and setting very quickly and very strongly.

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2 hours ago, Neddy said:

Thanks again for your valuable knowledge and advice.  In return, I've found a way of unclogging the recalcitrant incredibly fine metal applicator (think hypodemic nerdle!)  with thanks to YouTube contributors.  Gripping said applicator with a pair of needle-nose pliers to act as a heatsink, I briefly ran it over a flame a few times.  It became red-hot within a second each time and something must have happened as it now works perfectly.  I'll use it up first before going onto TET.

I use mainly Humbrol Poly glue, I've come to like the applicator needles but rather than use the cap & have to burn the needle out when it blocks (nasty fumes), I use a length of 5 amp fuse wire down it between uses & have little to no problem. I do find over time the stuff in the applicator bottles gets a bit thick so I keep a bottle of their Liquid poly & thin the stuff in the applicator bottle a little from time to time, not very often at all though. Recently when building a Classic Revell Wildcat, I found the plastic wouldn't bond so well with the Humbrol LP so I used some Revell Contacta in an applicator bottle. The Revell appears a bit hotter than the Humbrol & worked well with the old Revell Plastic.

Steve.

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Can't remember how I got onto it but EMA Plastic Weld is my choice with Revell's Contacta tube for the bigger pieces such as tank hulls or fuselages, EMA is great for capillary which is nearly all of my building which is holding the objects together and then applying the glue, can be tricky at times - wish I had 3 hands sometimes! - but you get strong bonds with less "overspill" so to speak as the joints don't move, of course that's my method so bare in mind how you build to what glue is best for you.

Why EMA to Tamiya? Sheer price, 50% more and 50% of the price, no it doesn't have a brush in the cap but for me a small old paint brush is way way better than the brush in a cap Tamiya, much more accurate

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6 hours ago, Toe said:

EMA Plastic Weld

 

"Often sold under the brand name of "EMA Plastic Weld" it is used

extensively in the model-making industry for joining plastic components

together where it is commonly referred to as "Di-clo"."

https://www.chemical-supermarket.com/Methylene-Chloride-250ml-p61.html

 

basically Methylene Chloride 

 

Was mentioned in the thread I linked.   Will bond non styrene plastic, like ABS 

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1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

Will bond non styrene plastic, like ABS

Nnngg :wall: ... This is why I insist on using polystyrene for what we makes models out of.  The S in ABS is styrene.  It and polystyrene are different polymers for which one of the starting points is actual styrene, which (being liquid at room temperature) isn't a lot of use for modelling.  (Sorry, completely irrelevant to the question, just going off on one ...)

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I use Revell Contacta (with a pin kept in the applicator tube to stop it blocking) to fix the parts then Tamiya extra thin to seal the entire length. Extra thin is also good for smaller parts where the Contacta would dispense too much glue.

 

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