Glue???

absnut

Member
Back in the "good old days" when my fingers and eyes were on a high level of co-operation, I used to do a lot of scratch-building with wood and card stock. At the time, my choice of glue was Ambroid's cement. I haven't done any major scratch-building with these materials for over 10 years, preferring to work with styrene. I'd like to try some more wood building so, my question is..... what is the popular glue of choice these days?

Happy New Year!

Dick
 

sumpter250

multiscale modelbuilder
absnut,
For wood, card stock, and most other porous materials I use either Elmer's Carpenter's wood glue, or Titebond, original wood glue.
Pete
 

Vic

Active Member
I'll go with Pete on the Elmer's or the Titebond.

For super glue I prefer Duro Super Glue Gel because being a gel you can control its application with no running or stuck fingers:) :D
 

Mike R

Member
Dick: go with Sumpter250's recommendations, as carpenter's glues are best. ACC (Crazy-glues) aren't meant for wood-to-wood joints.
Up here in Canada, I was using LePage Yellow carpenter's glue for wood model building, but have now switched to LePage Weathergrip Outdoor Wood Glue. The reason is I sometimes quick-dip whole subassemblies in a thinned stain mixture, and the Weathergrip product resists moisture even better than straight yellow glue.You can also spray water-based scenic treatments around the base of structures ( like trestle bents) with no fear of glue softening..especially if you're a careless, carefree sprayer of scenic materials like I am.
best regards / Mike:p
 
For porous materials I've never had to go beyond carpenters white glue, but for joining styrene to porous materials I use fast setting (20 minute) two part epoxy resin (Here in UK it's called Araldite). Applied with a toothpick, it's great. Just rough up the styrene with course sandpaper, emery or whatever.

Errol
 

absnut

Member
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I have never used any of those for model-building, although I have used most for other purposes. Looks like some experimentation coming up!

Dick
 

Gardenrrguy

New Member
Just thought I would add my 2 cents.
I use ACC (superglue) on almost everything. I model extensively in wood. The structures on my garden railway have to stand up to the weather (New England) year round. Rain, snow, heat and no problems. The oldest building has been out there for over 10 years.
Now this is just from my experience and is only an opinion. But I like ACC adhesives. Maybe they are better for large scale modeling with wood. The porosity of the wood wicks up the ACC and there is no problem with any visual discrepancys that might occur in a smaller scale. This is the infamous white haze that ACC can leave behind.
Now maybe I have good luck because the structures are painted and weather proofed for out doors. This may keep the ACC bond intact longer? My older structures need a re-paint about every 5years.
I hope this helps all that read it.

See Ya.
 

Vic

Active Member
Hi Gardenguy, I'll go along with what you said about ACC glue and wood. The early so called "super glues" would not work on wood but for the most part the formulations on the market today will work on porous or semi porous woods. They are not so hot on really hardwoods such as oak but most of the modeling woods are, balsa, spruce or soft pine and they work very well on them.

The formulation for a "super glue" that would work with wood was first introduced by a company known as Sattelite Mfg. They produced for the radio controled model airplane market a super glue that could be used for the assembly of balsa and spruce model airplanes. Their product was called Hot Stuff because it would smoke slightly (due to a chemical reaction) when applied to the wood. Later the Carl Goldberg Model Airplane Co. improved on this formulation with their Jet and Super Jet brand glues and finally it was picked up by the general market.

In general now, if the packaging says that it will work with wood it will, provided that it is a porous and non-resinous wood.
 

Mike R

Member
Many kinds of glue CAN work. The late, great Jack Work was a master modeller in scratchbuilt wood structures and cars. He used solvent-thinned Pliobond adhesive, and very successfully.

You fellas with the ACC almost have me convinced...well, not quite almost...it will take one more proven example:
When my Guru of All Things Wood, Norm Abram, ( of the PBS New Yankee Workshop), uses ACC for a wood-to-wood joint, I will, too.
best regards / Mike:D :p ;)
 

jon-monon

Active Member
"Power Poxy Stix-on contact All Purpose Adhesive The Increadible Flexible Crystal Clear Formula" works great on wood, metal and plastic, dires quickly and won't glue your fingers together. I got it at Menards, free after rebate, limit three, got all three and used 1 1/2 :) They (power poxy) also make instant epoxy, in case you don't have 5 minutes!
 

Mike R

Member
Sounds superific, Jon, Power Poxy has got to be it. Plus if it dires quickly, it can be used for gluing eoads, at least I would think this.
;) ;) ;)
regards / Mike
 
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