Laminating plastic sheets

[doctorwayne]

RicZ

I am looking for suggestions as to how to laminate two sheets of thin plastic.

How thin is the base layer?  If it's at least .020" thick, any solvent-type cement should work well without distorting the plastic sheet material.
I originally used lacquer thinner for all sorts of plastic assemblies, until some government regulations change the formula (supposedly for health reasons) enough that it no longer worked reliably on styrene.

I then switched to MEK, which works somewhat similar to the original lacquer thinner, although it does evapourate much more quickly.

I recently found another version of the original lacquer thinner, which works as well, even though it's labelled as a thinner for industrial maintenance coatings.

It doesn't evapourate as quickly as MEK, so allows proper positioning of the parts needing to be joined.  It works great on styrene and I also used it to apply some Kingmill printed-paper (about .010" thick) structure walls onto a building made with .060" sheet styrene.
I picked a random on-layout spot to take a photo of the structure...

I applied a very liberal coating of the lacquer thinner to each wall of the structure, using a 1" brush, which allowed me to properly position the cut-out paper images, in-turn, on each of the styrene walls.

I have two gallons of the laquer thinner, which wasn't cheap, but which works as good as the original, and better than MEK.  Should be enough to outlast me.

Wayne

 

[hornblower]

I find that I like to use the Testors Liquid Plastic Cement in the black plastic bottle when I need more time to apply the glue and set the parts.  The glue in the black plastic bottle (square with a pointed spout on one corner) is definitely thicker than other liquid plastic cements and gives you a good 30 seconds to a minute of time to work with fitting the parts.  I also find this cement useful when I need a thoroughly indestructable joint as its slower curing time allows it to soak deeper into the plastic.  Because of this fact, I would not try to coat the entire back of the fluted plastic.  I would run a small bead of glue around the perimeter of the part or just a bunch of small dots of glue. 

Just thought of another idea that might work even better.  If you drill holes through the smooth sides of the cars where the fluting will go, you can just position the fluting against the car side, then apply any liquid plastic cement through the holes you drilled from the inside of the car.  This will allow easy assembly, strong joints and greatly reduce the chance of bubbles or melted fluting from applying too much glue.

[tstage]

Ric,

As Rich stated, Plastruct Plastic Weld does evaporate quickly so you might need to apply it in several coats before pressing the two pieces together.

What are your largest pieces that you will be adhering to one another?  You could always cut them oversized, "weld" them together, then trim them to the correct dimensions.  That way any leaking will be trimmed off.

Tom

[richhotrain]

You want to use Plastruct Plastic Weld in the clear bottle with the orange label.

Sand both sides of the sheets to be joined and then spread the Plastic Weld on both sheets. You have to work fast because the adhesive begins to evaporate. If the areas to be glued are large, glue half of each sheet together and then glue the other half. Works like a charm when bonding styrene sheets together.

Rich

[RicZ]

I am looking for suggestions as to how to laminate two sheets of thin plastic.  I plan to build a fluted passenger car that is currently smooth-sided.  I will be using Plastruct .020 fluted sheets.

how is the best way to "glue" the two surfaces without having the adhesive leaking, but giving me a good bond?  I appreciate any help that is offered.

RicZ