There was a posting here on RMS a few months ago that has eluded my search. Someone posted the difference in various types of cement products, such as Tenax, Ambroid, Tamiya Extra thin, Testors and Weldon and so on relative to the chemical base for each type of cement, being MEK, methyl chloride (sp) or what ever the flavor of the month might be. I have solved the evaporation from the container by using Teflon tape around the thread of the cap, but continue to have trouble with some of the cements evaporating off the brush before I can get enough on the airplane to get a bond. Thanks in advance for your time and assistance in curing my ignorance. Regards, Bruce Apple
difference in types of plastic model cement NON CA
Jun 14, 2006
5 Replies
snipped-for-privacy@cfl.rr.com (Bruce Apple) wrote in :
Good heavens, what sort of cement are you using that this is a problem?
Testors did have a Plastic Model Cement Pen. I have one that was stored away for 25 years and it is still good. It looks like a felt tip marker but has a metal cannister and a hard plastic material tip. It contains toluol and don't know if they still sell it./ /
Tenax will do that. It makes a great weld IF you can get enough on the joint quickly without being sloppy. The downside to solvents that don't evaporate as quickly is that they also take longer to diffuse back out of the plastic. This is one of the causes of the continually sinking joint often seen on vac kits.
Greg Reynolds, IPMS
Living in a warm/hot tropical environment where we have ceiling fans in every room to keep air movement to an acceptable level makes the use of Tenax almost impossible because of rapid evaporation. So I bought a few of Micromarks' glue applicators which work very well indeed . They consist of a glass tube with a hypodermic needle cemented in one end ,you fill by placing the glass tube into the Tenax bottle with the needle facing upwards and the Tenax climbs the tube by capillary action, you then invert the tube so the needle faces downward and the Tenax flows to the needle end and tiny a droplet appears at the needle end allowing you to run the Tenax along the prepared joint.If you lay the flow applicator down flat the Tenax stops flowing ,so you can pick it up and start again when you are ready for the next joint.It can be left flat on the bench for a long time and still contain the Tenax.
The only problem I have had is minute pieces of plastic getting into the needle and blocking it .I have solved this problem by getting a plastic syringe and cutting the nozzle to fit the glass tube ,I place the needle end into the syringe and flush/inject water through it to clear the blockage. They also break easily if dropped.
Forgot to add ,it's called the "Touch and Flow" applicator.
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