HOW TO TAKE GLUED PLASTIC APART

[lupo]

[?]I bought a partly built up rondhouse, wich I want to take apart before rebuilding/kitbash it I do not know what glue was used.
Anyone has an advice/tips how to take apart the allready glued parts with as little damage as possible?

[Anonymous]

It all depends on the glue the person used to put it together.Plain old glue in the tube,I have had good luck just soaking the item in warm water. Also I've also used finger nail polish remover, start on a inside wall. ( use care with this if you use to much remover at once it will attack the other surfaces and start to make them tacky.)

[nfmisso]

If it was put together with a solvent type, there is not a good way. Acetone (finger nail polish remover is acetone plus perfume, and some water) is a solvent that can be used as a glue on styrene, and can be used in this case to dissolve the joints. Make sure that you keep it away from the visible surfaces.

Like Dave's suggestion, I would carefully brush some acetone (or finger nail polish remover) along an inside corner, wait a couple of minutes, and run a sharp X-acto or similar down the insde. Repeat until the corner seperates.

Before starting, decide which side of the corner is more important to save, and proceed accordingly. At least one side will be damaged.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting this topic. I was just wondering the same thing myself. I got some HO trains and buildings that date back to the late 50's for Christmas and was thinking of doing some ungluing on some of the buildings which were sloppily put together.

[cmrproducts]

Now this may sound a little strange but putting the model in the freezer or setting it out side in the extreme cold will somehow make the glued joints brittle and with a little work the glued joints just come apart. Now not all joints will come apart clean but the building kits I have tried it on I was able to reuse most of the parts. I never figured that it would work but had to give it a try and was pleasently surprised when the first building kit I tried this procedure on just about fell apart.

Bob H Clarion, PA

[nfmisso]

Hi Bob;

What you suggests works great with CA joints. It works because the adhesive and the the substrate have different rates of thermal expansion. It will not work on solvent joints because they are welds, and there is no adhesive.