The sticky question of glue?

[Tony Haycock]

What glue do you experts ptefer? I am curious to see what the experts prefer.

[Des]

You're right Tony, it is a sticky question. My preference when gluing plastic is Humbrol Precision Poly, it comes with a long thin metal dispensing tube which make application easy, and it bonds extremely well. I also use a lot of CA (super glue, the runny type), fantastic stuff for resin, PE, any metal additions, rigging plus I use it for fixing a lot of my plastic parts as well.

Des.

[GAJouette]

  Tony,
My preferences for glues are Tenax and thin super glue.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[ALBATROS1234]

i use tamiya extra thin mostly and tenax when i need something a bit hotter. i use extra thin ca as well. except i save my old tamiya xthin bottles put the ca in that then i make a brush from the green cap with a length of styrene tube inserted in the end is an extra fine felt tip nib i bought at an art supply store. i made the tube long enuff to keep the tip submerged which keeps it soft. this gives me a fine absorbant tip to apply ca in small areas.

[Pete Nottingham]

I tend to use Revell Contacta Professional and Mr Cement S for plastics and I use CA, the runny type for PE, resin, plastic and rigging.

Cheers

Pete.

[pepperman42]

I use the same as albatros1234 - that old bottle for the thin ca is a cool idea that I dont use - until now  Nice tip.

Steve

[phs Paddy]

I normally use Tamiya’s Thin for styrene but have started using Microscale Micro Weld liquid cement especially on finer parts or thinner styrene and find it working very well for me. Some time ago Dances with Wolves, Steve Budd, lead me to it. If he happens by, thanks Steve.

I won’t tell you the brush I have been using to apply it with for fear of pushing someone into cardiac arrest, but the two are a champion pair together. 

Paddy

[Epeeman]

I like a combination of poly cement from the tube, superglue and the poly glue with the long needles - all have their specific uses, e.g. tube poly cement, though messy, you get a bit of 'squeeze' which once dry can be sanded smooth reducing use of model filler.  The needle variety is great for getting glue in small, precise areas.  Superglue (CA) great for PE, rigging or where fitting parts that refuse to go together well with normal poly glue.

Dave

[Tony Haycock]

Thanks everyone. Heaps of useful advice here.

Tony

[ALBATROS1234]

for pe i use future to glue it on. when i used ca i always stick fast as soon as it touches and you cant move it without destroying the pe part. i use future because it drys in a few minutes so you can adjust it to exactly where you want it.its wont permanently hold the parts. after it drys i spray dullcote over it so it wont flake off. ive been doing this for 3-4 years and i wont use ca again to glue pe parts.

[LindsayT]

Tony, I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to tack on a question related to yours about glue, rather than start a new thread. Not sure of the etiquette here, so if this should be moved to a new thread by the moderators, please do so, and please accept my apologies in advance.

There's been lots of great advice on the types of glue to use, but I'm also interested in how the glue is applied, especially small, precise amounts of CA for things like turnbuckles and setting rigging wire that's been drilled through the wing. You want there to be enough glue to hold the part, but you don't want a big blob getting on your hard-earned paint job. Albatros1234 had a good point (ha!) on using a felt tip nib, but is that precise enough? I've also seen a tip on cutting the end loop off a sewing needle to get a small precise amount, but how is that applied to avoid getting glue on unwanted areas? Des recommends using super thin CA for turnbuckles, so is that just a matter of letting the capillary action in the thin tube bring the CA inside without getting on the surrounding area?

Thanks in advance for any help, and thanks Tony for letting me hitch a ride.

Lindsay

[Pete Nottingham]

Hi Lindsay, for CA glue I have some double sided tape on my cutting mat, but I leave the glossy paper that is on it face uppermost, I then put a small amount of CA on the paper and apply it with a cocktail stick to the model, after a while you will get a build up of dried CA on the stick, I just use a scalpel to sharpen the stick again.

Cheers

Pete.

[ALBATROS1234]

my felt nib works fine for small applications, granted i use future to glue many things together and on. like you say with the extra thin ca it wicks into the turnbuckle tubing. it just what you feel comfortable doing. everyone has there own little methods.

[Des]

Like Scott said, everyone has their own preferred method but this is what works for me when applying CA.

When making turnbuckles or attaching rigging lines to the model only a very small amount of CA is needed. I expel a drop of CA onto a non absorbent material, I then use a piece of fine copper wire, usually about 0.15mm, I dip the end of the wire into the glue, a small drop will appear on the end of the wire and this is quickly transferred onto the part I am working on. The glue I use is very runny so capillary action will ''drag''  the glue into the turnbuckle and around the rigging line, one small drop is usually sufficient as the CA is very strong. One thing to be very aware of is that super glue goes ''off''  very quickly, once you have a drop of glue on your non absorbent material it will only be useable for a few minutes, even though it may appear to be still in liquid form it looses its properties and will not flow, when making turnbuckles I will add glue to 5 buckles then discard the glue and get a new drop, when doing the rigging one expelled drop will stay fresh long enough to do one rigging line. When using super glue there will be a lot of waste, I probably only use about 10% of each tube, luckily the stuff is very inexpensive.
I go through a lot of CA so I buy it in bulk, I usually buy around 50 tubes at a time and always like to keep a stock on hand, once down to 20 tubes I reorder.

Des.

[LindsayT]

Pete, Scott, Des,

Great tips everybody! Those will be really useful.

Thanks,

Lindsay