Strongest Plastic Glue

[KA4HJH]

>The plastic solvent cements wich Terry
>mentions are mostly just chloroform, but sometimes ether is better. This is
>something you have to try out yourself. Plastic modellers use this stuff too.
>As Terry already mentiones a clean solid joint is absolutely 
>necessary for this
>to work proparly!

Liquid plastic cements are a huge improvement over the old "airplane 
glue" that came out of a tube, which is polystyrene dissolved in 
toluene (Q-dope appears to be the same thing, only thinner). Drove me 
nuts trying to build models when I was a kid as it took all night to 
harden.

The slower liquids are usually methyl ethyl ketone or some similar 
petroleum distillate, as everyone is down on toluene in "children's 
products" these days. These may take a minute or so. The 
faster-setting stuff is methylene chloride (a carcinogen) or 
chloroform (take a deep breath while holding a running chainsaw), 
both of what are also a bit dangerous around kids and are sold to 
serious hobbyists. The later two are extremely volatile (they 
evaporate FAST) and work extremely well--gone in under 10 seconds. 
The fastest thing I've tried is a proprietary brand called 
"Tenax-7R", which smells somewhat like a CFC and is just as good an 
escape artist (I could swear I screwed the lid on tight). It's gone 
in seconds. You can see the trail disappearing behind the brush.

Haven't tried ether yet.  X)

All of these are applied with a (perhaps very) small paintbrush or a 
tiny syringe. Don't worry about that white stuff that forms around 
the ferrule. It's only ice.


Things have come a long way since I was a kid. You can build an 
entire plastic model as fast as you can chop the parts off the sprues 
using this stuff. And the joints are SOLID welds.

And then I got an airbrush...

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

ICQ: 45652354