Glue for Plastic Straws.

[SpaceMouse]

I wanted to glue a couple straws in my engine house to guide the lighting wires out of sight of the windows. But they keep coming off. I've tried Elmer's wood glue, CA, and plastic cement. 

I may hit it next with Gorilla Glue or two-stage epoxy. There's gotta be an easy way.

[Overmod]

SpaceMouse

I wanted to glue a couple straws in my engine house to guide the lighting wires out of sight of the windows. But they keep coming off.

Use contact cement like Goo or Pliobond, and follow directions: place bead on the straw or the wall, touch the straw to the wall to spread thin on the mating surfaces, let nearly dry, and press until tacked.  I used a piece of stiff rod inside the 'bore' of the straw to push it tight against the wall.  I found it is easier to cut ports and channels in the straw before you glue than to 'carve' or nibble them afterward.

Note that some straws are waxed, and some plastic ones have drawing or parting agent on them and might have to be washed.  Theoretically you could 'glue' a waxed or stubbornly non-sticky one by rolling it in a paper bracket and gluing the bracket edges instead...

 

[doctorwayne]

A bunch of plastic straws from a fast-food place followed me home once, in hopes of being made into a pipe load for a flatcar or gondola.  However, I couldn't find a glue that would not be too messy, but still stick to the plastic.

However, I have used Weldbond white glue, which claims to bond-anything-to-anything. 
I initially bought some to make a minor repair to a pick-up truck that I owned at the time.  At the front of the hood was what I think meant to be a bug-deflector, in plastic of some sort.  Affixed to the truck's hood, close to the bottom of the deflector, were a number of rubber-like "bullets", meant to keep the deflector from rattling on the hood at higher speeds, I think. 
One day I was brushing snow off the vehicle, and one of the "bullets" got brushed-off, too.  I did find it, and when the weather got a little more favourable, I picked-up a small container of Weldbond, and decided to test its claims, which I suspected to be mostly B.S.
Much to my surprise, once set, the bullet stayed in place, and was still in place several years later when I sold the truck.

I've used Weldbond lately on the layout, too, and it does a decent job of holding plastic ties and details to cork and plywood, and other plastics.
A few minutes ago, I put some on one of the ill-gotten straws, and placed it on a piece of 1/4" balsa.  Once it dries, I'll see how good the bond is, and report back to you here.

However, if it does work, you may have difficulty finding it in the U.S., as it's a made-in-Canada product, and may not be available in your area.

I don't think I even tried using it for the pipe load, though, as it might have been too noticeable, and likewise for contact cement, also one of my go-to adhesives.  On an interior wall, though, it should be fairly unnoticeable. 

More news at 11:00!

Wayne

 

[mvlandsw]

Chip,

Heat shrink tubing might work for wire guides and might be easier to glue. It's also available in a variety of sizes. It could be used without shrinking it.

Wayne,

If you use the proper blocking for your pipe load the pipe should not have to be glued together.

Small pieces of double stick tape could be used on the interior of the load if you want to hold the pipes together.

Mark

[wvg_ca]

dunno, probably first one i would try would be the old airplane plastic glue, a little slow, but wotks on most ?

[Overmod]

Weldbond was the only white or carpenter's glue I used for many years.  It was easily available in northern and central New Jersey; I thought it was pretty easily located other places.  Perhaps local hardware chains if the 'big box' stores don't have it.

[dbduck]

cant speak from experience  but I would try Canopy Glue aka Zap Formula 560

[Mark R.]

I use JB Weld 5 Minute for multitudes of things. I can't recall anything that it hasn't held in place .... wood / steel / brass / plastic / etc. ....

Mark. 

[NittanyLion]

I used good old Ailene's on some straws I cut up for a pipe load. 

[doctorwayne]

Overmod

Weldbond was the only white or carpenter's glue I used for many years.  It was easily available in northern and central New Jersey; I thought it was pretty easily located other places.  Perhaps local hardware chains if the 'big box' stores don't have it.

 

Despite the success I've had with it in the past, Weldbond will not bond to the plastic straw - not even a bit of residue, while the stuff on the wood, even though not yet fully hardened, won't come off without also pulling off fibres from the wood.

 

mvlandsw

...If you use the proper blocking for your pipe load the pipe should not have to be glued together. Small pieces of double stick tape could be used on the interior of the load if you want to hold the pipes together.

 

Thanks for that suggestion, Mark.   Scotch tape will not stick to the straws, nor will masking tape.  I did have a little better success using insulator's aluminum tape, but only if it's wrapped completely around the straw. 
I suppose that I could make some stakes, joined at their bottoms across the floor of a gondola, then simply dump the straws into the car, loose, but not piled above the top of car's ends - don't want a shifted load caused by rough train handling. 
I'm not sure that it would be prototypical though, as they're almost 50' long, too big to be unloaded manually...maybe with a magnet-equipped crane, though, which I just happen to have...

 

 

 

I did make some pipe loads using the barrels from Bic pens...

 

 

...and a couple of others using the ink tubes from the same pens...

 

 

 

 

...but have not yet added any wedges on the stickers between levels.

 

JB Quik Weld and regular JB Weld will hold stuff in place if it's on a suitable surface, or surrounding the object to be held, but it doesn't stick all that well to styrene plastic, as I discovered when filling the space around the car weights in some Stewart hoppers (under the slope sheets) and likewise inside the cars, where I added sheet lead, to the top of the slope sheets.  After it had hardened, a chisel type blade in an X-Acto easily removed any oozed-out material and any smears of it created during positioning.  It does stick well to the metal weights, though, so I'll simply apply some ca around the perimeter of the weights, which should keep them in place, both under and inside the cars (I'm doing 12 cars, all modified to match specific prototypes).

 

SpaceMouse

I wanted to glue a couple straws in my engine house to guide the lighting wires out of sight of the windows. But they keep coming off. I've tried Elmer's wood glue, CA, and plastic cement.

 

I think that I'd simply use some wood to box-in the wires so they're out of sight.  You could also run them up an inside corner of the building, with a single vertical "plank" spanning the corner and hiding the wire.
Another option would be to use solid, unsheathed single-strand wire, and paint it to look like conduit - as long as the two wires don't come in contact, no problems.

 

Wayne

[SeeYou190]

I tried to glue some fast-food straws together years ago and failed completely.

I would bet the product that some people use on delrin handrails might be a good one to try out, but the brand name escapes me.

Can someone help my memory?

-Kevin

["JaBear"]

Caulk

[BRAKIE]

Due to the glue problem I stop using straws and used round tubing from Evergreen in various sizes for pipe loads.

As for wiring I would use heat shrink tubing.

[richhotrain]

BRAKIE

Due to the glue problem I stop using straws and used round tubing from Evergreen in various sizes for pipe loads.

As for wiring I would use heat shrink tubing. 

Avoiding plastic straws in favot of Evergreen Scale Models tubing makes sense to me and it is what I use.

As for heat shrink tubing for stringing wiring, that works well for short runs but not so well for long runs because heat shrink tubing can be purchased in short straight lengths, but longer runs of heat shrink tubing are sold in rolls which are difficult to impossible to straighten out.

Rich

[richhotrain]

mvlandsw

If you use the proper blocking for your pipe load the pipe should not have to be glued together.

Small pieces of double stick tape could be used on the interior of the load if you want to hold the pipes together.

Agreed.

I confess that I have never tried to glue plastic straws together or to different surfaces, but if it is impossible to do so, wouldn't the solution be to either bind multiple straws together with tape or string or whatever, or to use a different material to suspend individual straws for wiring purposes? 

It does seem that a lot of the replies to this thread are merely based on speculation. Try this, try that, etc.

Rich

[RR_Mel]

I just glue the wires to the walls or wooden beams for my structures.  I normally use #24 or #28 bare copper for my structure lighting, makes it easy to solder tack bulbs or LEDs.  I use 12 volt GOW bulbs (operating at reduced voltage, 8½ volts) in all of my structures for more realistic 50s lighting.



I used #24 bare copper in my roundhouse by drilling holes in the wooden beams.  Twenty 3mm GOW bulbs soldered to #24 bare copper wire.



The only place I use “conduit” for my wiring is buried in scenery.  The best “conduit” is ¼” or ⅜” garden drip hose, no problem with glue either.


Mel



 
My Model Railroad  
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
 

[Overmod]

SeeYou190

I would bet the product that some people use on delrin handrails might be a good one to try out, but the brand name escapes me. Can someone help my memory?

Gluing POM/acetal (Delrin) is interesting because of the relatively low surface activity that makes it among other things 'self lubricating'.  So to 'glue' it successfully requires not only the right kind of 'adhesive' but also effective surface treatment and/or priming.  An introduction (see p.14 and pp.75ff) is here:

https://www.ellsworth.com/globalassets/literature-library/manufacturer/henkel-loctite/henkel-loctite-design-guide-plastic-bonding.pdf

Permabond had a polyolefin primer that could modify the surface bonds enough that CA would bond effectively enough for the small handrail joints.  There are industrial epoxy, urethane, etc. systems with 'better' bond chemistry but they tend to be very expensive in small quantities and have limited shelf life, as well as nasty to use in typical hobby environments.

 

[RR_Mel]

I’ve been using 3M Primer 94 Tape Adhesion Promoter to prime Delrin then any AC or Super glue works.

Warning, it can be pricy so shop around.  A .02 oz pen is just under $6 on eBay.



Mel


 
My Model Railroad  
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[Overmod]

RR_Mel

I’ve been using 3M Primer 94 Tape Adhesion Promoter to prime Delrin then any AC or Super glue works.

Those of you who understand the chemistry will know what's going on with this by reading the ingredients list required on the MSDS (p.2)

https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=SSSSSuUn_zu8l00xl82eM8txnv70k17zHvu9lxtD7SSSSSS--

Of course the specifics are a 'trade secret' but we can figure out what is supposed to do what pretty directly...

[doctorwayne]

Well, with a 20 page MSDS, I get the impression that I probably shouldn't continue using it as barbecue sauce.

Wayne

[snjroy]

I second the caulk (or silicone) suggestion. 5 minute epoxy will stick to Delrin plastic, so I imagine that it would stick to straws as well. I think that you will face similar problems with shrink tubes... I've also used silicone to "glue" wires directly on a surface.

Simon