Has anyone had any lock with glueing bachmann soft plastic railings, like the ones they use on cabooses or coach cars?
The trick for me has been CLEAN. All plastics out of the box have a coating of mold release agent. A good warm soapy water will remove the release agent and allow for good adheasion when glue. The 'soft' or 'flexible' accessories seem to have soaked up this release agent. I cannot prove this, just my personal belief. When washed alongside the 'hard' parts the 'soft' one seem to not glue up as well. A prolonged bath in HOT soapy water (so hot as to require use of tongs, tweezers, or forceps) seems to pull the release agent that has soaked into the plastic. This heat will make the plastic warp somewhat, care must be taken to allow the items to cool while supporting the proper shape. Then a quick dab of super glue holds these items in place very well.
Tom Trigg
Thanks Tom, I'll give it a try, I have found that super glue only works a little but haven't tried cleaning as you describe, have wiped off with acctone and that seems to help, problem being is usually item is broken at a pressure point like where the railing hooks into the socket piece. Have had some luck with drilling out a numbered drill bit hole and inserting a paper clip shaft into both parts but takes a mighty steady hand and if you miss it's junk. I'll give the soap and hot water next time Thanks again, Bill
Take extreame caution with acetone. Long years past I used denatured acetone (read: no water, FULL strength) to clean a house I was building. Did a real good job cleaning the parts. So good it also removed most of the woodgrain pattern of the exterior walls.
So true, I cemented the side boards on Rosy's caboose and use a glue which is about 1/2 acetone and it wound up melting some of the boards together and then I had to draw I the detail. Us it a lot to smooth out joints and spots where I can't get to sand or smooth. Started work on a drover caboose spurred from having extra caboose cupola left over from yard office and Rosy + conversation on G Scale Central. I previously had a Kalamazoo combine so I started talking it apart. Roof and trucks were no problem the body from the chassis was another story The two are glued together and I had to saw a little and used acetone to soften the joint to a point to where I could separate the two, so that time it worked to my advantage. Thanks for the heads up, Bill
My 'roadgang crew car' is on hold for a bit. This is the begining of 2 weeks per month chasing down the full sized stuff. Especially narrow gage steam. Currently a days drive from home with cameras and camera drone akongside the mainline to L.A. waiting for something interesting to come along. Planning to ride the Gran Canyon Line to the canyon on Wednesday. Got a 1st class ticket for that ride.
Train chasing season runs thru late October.
I've been working on a true style drover caboose using a Kalamazoo combine, cause it's short and I had one. Had to do something with extra caboose cupola that I wound up with. Please post pictures after your trip sounds really cool, Bill
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