The new glue

[Maethius]

Okay, our quasi-local hobby store (it's a 40 minute drive to get there) now carries quantities of large styrene stock (10" x 20" sheets; including black styrene). I need this for the custom I'm building and I asked about what is the best cement for building styrene or plastic based/scratch built models and they led me to a product called "Pro Weld."



BEST SOLVENT/CEMENT EVER.

I will give you this caution; it eats Zoid plastic like a red-hot knife through butter, so use it SPARINGLY, and you better have your parts worked out perfectly before you apply it. They aren't kidding when they say "weld"... and it cost $1 less than half the amount of Testor's plastic model cement.

[jestermon]

I have use the Plastruct Brand after I found it's much better that Testors, some of the zoid plastic is rather difficult to get to glue a lot of the Blox type plastic.

Well when I mean new I mean from years ago ha, it's not Polystyrene I don't think it doesn't feel the same as the older stuff.

It is great but still won't work on some hard plastics, like pen tops and Marker pieces of course neither will Testors, some plastics it will start working but then it will evaporate before it liquefies the plastic.

[Maethius]

There are always some plastics that seem to ignore the best glues and solvents. I suppose that's why we have to keep a selection of them around.

[jestermon]

Yeah that's when I get out the pin vise and use paperclips to pin things together.

[Snowflake]

I'd like to see a pin vise tutorial sometime, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how they could work properly, especially the hand-powered ones

[Maethius]

Practice, practice, practice. Essentially it's a tiny drill that you push down to spin the bit (actually based on some of the original, pre-industrial revolution drill technology). You do need a steady hand, but because the bits and metal rods come in standard sizes it makes for an excellent way to pin parts.

[Snowflake]

I'm having trouble imagining how there could be enough mechanical leverage to let normal arm strength just drive a drill through plastic..
i know at least a few zoid parts that would definitely break in half before theyd succumb to boring.. but.. then again I'm always hearing people claim they used a normal hobby knife to cut through thick plastic, so maybe I'm just a weak babby

[Tilly]

The few times I've used one I found it was more a matter of patience rather than lots of pressure—I'd say it was easier (though more fiddly) than a number of tight/strip-happy screws I've tried to wrangle. And as Maethius said, you need a steady enough hand to keep drilling evenly. I was just using one the other day to fix up a break in a really tiny piece (the ankle peg of a MSS Shield Liger, which is thinner than the edges of some frames).

So far it's holding. It better stay that way, unlike the old candy toy Shield Liger whose leg peg I pinned/glued and STILL can't get to stay put because its plastic is weird and soft. I need to try again with another glue. I wonder if this one would do it—how bad are the fumes versus the Testor's stuff?

[Maethius]

I've found it to be less fumy than Testor's. I'm using a new tool to apply it though, because the brush it comes with is... well, it's crap. I saw one of these glue applicators on Micro-Mark and realized it would be easy to make my own with an old small brush handle and a clipped sewing needle: