Repair

[TK4205]

I came into possession of TE calf parts that had been hastily glued with Cyanoacrylate. My goal is to clean and repair.

 

Cyanoacrylate is the generic name for CA glue, also known as Super Glue. It's definitely not good for polystyrene. Acetone and Nitromethane are good cleaners, but they will also melt hips. I'll have to sand it off. When sanding CA you might want glasses and a dust mask. It burns the eyes and nose worse than when it's wet.

 

As you can see, the Cyanoacrylate damaged the styrene. It made it brittle and weak.

 

For the most part the edges were trimmed, but I wanted a smoother edge, so I will use a round file instead of the dremmel.

 

The best glue that I've found for polystyrene, ABS, acetate, plexi-glass and lots of other plastics, is Testors plastic cement. It's not recommended for polypropylene, vinyl, polyethylene or other "rubbers".

It contains a solvent that melts just the surface of the plastic, allowing the two parts to fuse together. As the solvent evaporates the strength returns to the polystyrene, the components having been fused together. It doesn't keep melting through like ABS glue does. I'll post pics with my progress

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Great start Wyatt! Considering my situation, I have a very keen interest in how this turns out ;-)

 

Also, it's great to see threads like this. I converted my first TK to a TD due to all the booboos I made & didn't know how to get rid of. I'd rather any future conversions be voluntary.