glueing styrene to wood - adhesive advice?

Depends on how thick and how large a piece of plastic your'e talking about. Large thick pieces (no thinner than 2mm) could be stuck with contact adhesive, any thinner and you run the risk of the glue attacking the plastic. Small pieces could be stuck with Contact, epoxy or superglue. Large thin pieces need a glue which isn't going to melt them. I'd, personally, try 3M Photomount. Although this does react to styrene if you apply it to the ply the effect is minimal. You could also try double sided sellotape which sounds a little "Blue Peter" but does work. I've also heard that PVA woodglue works with thin styrene but never seen that done. For small pieces of thin plastic Super glue or epoxy would work fine as well. HTH

" Les Pickstock" wrote

Contact adhesive is a definite no-no with plastic sheet. I laminated some embossed stone onto timber some years ago and after about 12 months the plastic started to warp.

Your 2mm thick minimum might work, but I wouldn't want to rely on it long term.

John.

2mm and above works fine I've actually done that myself and the plastic stays put, no problem! Embossed sheets are way to thin for that, I'm suprised they lasted 12 months.

You could try cutting up some tiny strips of plasticard say 1mm X 4mm and melting them into some plastic weld till they are completely melted. Smear the resulting glop thinly on the wood and place the plasticard on top. OK for a small area - I use it at work but you could try double sided sellotape for a larger area,

Best

Ashley

I have been using contact adhesive for many years now with no problem, I picked up my latest idea from someone making large scale buildings at a show, first coat your wood in contact adhesive leave to dry, you can then cut the wood to the size you require, then using contacted adhesive remover it will soften the glue, then you can attatch you plastic card to it, I have used this for both

4mm and 7mm buildings.

Ian Gearing

A way I did it years ago was to dilute Evostik with Slaters MEK. When applied, the MEK evaporated and left a very thin layer of Evostik. I used it to stick N scale embossed plastic sheet to plywood, and it seemed to work well at the time - but it was over 30 yaers ago, so the memory may be playing tricks :-)

Also, I believe that Slaters have changed the makeup of their MEK, so it may not work as well nowadays.

Jim.

You used to be able to thin evostick with meths IIRC

Don't blame me if it goes wrong however I've successfully used -

... hot glue (from a mini-glue gun) - be careful of the glue melting thin sheets ... silicon sealant for large sheets (also works well in fixing sheets to plaster) ... and last but not least ... good old fashioned UHU.

HTH

1. Roughen the back of the styrene and apply builder's/woodworker's PVA. Cheap and you probably have some.
2. Use Wickes Outdoor Frame Sealant designed for sticking PVC frames to wood casings and brickwork. About £5.00 and not so easy to spread.

Thanks to all who helped. I will try a few of the methods with some scrap, and report back.

ZD