What can I do with the leftover sprues from my plastic kits? Since I am not prone to throwing anything away, I would like to know.
Thanks,
73
Bruce in the Peg
-The current MR issue has sprue being used for drain pipes on structures.
-One of my modeling books has stretching sprue as a way of filling holes in models (hold the sprue over a flame and stretch it to the desired thickness, then cut it and place it in the hole).
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
Yes, you can make credible standpipes for water and fuel, utility poles, fence posts, even rail-end bumpers. Cut to length, glued together into a retaining wall, scratched up with sandpaper, and then painted and weathered, they would look just like a log retaining wall.
-Crandell
As you can see, there are lots of uses for sprues. However, when I go on a kit-building spree, I end up with a real surfeit of the stuff. Not wanting to just throw it away, I fitted a waste basket with a plastic bag, then add any scrap plastic, whether sprues, plastic packaging, or plastic trimmings from scratchbuilding. When the bag is full, I put it in with the plastics for recycling.
Wayne
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
R. T. POTEET wrote:... dissolving (styrene) plastic in plastic cement to create a paste...
... dissolving (styrene) plastic in plastic cement to create a paste...
Ah!... you beat me to it. We both must be over the hill..
UpNorth wrote: R. T. POTEET wrote:... dissolving (styrene) plastic in plastic cement to create a paste... Ah!... you beat me to it. We both must be over the hill..
You can use it to make threads and wires. I've modelled the rigging of a battleship using plastic sprues held over a candle light. Then just slowly pull and you get some nice thin wires.
Magnus
Here's a really off-the-wall idea.
Smooth the casting line on the sprue, then rotate it under (or over) a hobby saw to cut it off. Cut the opposite end to give a total length of 8 or 12 scale feet (or appropriate metric dimension.) Paint to suit. Viola! Rolled carpet.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Used that sprue for antennas by rotating over a candle and stretching. They fit very nicely onto the military vehicles of various scales once cool.
You can cut a batch to one length to build ladders rung by rung. A bit too tedious for me but it can be done.
Plastic Goop!
Hi Guys,
We all have a collection but if you run out come to the factory at our club. (GAC RR, Bethpage, NY)
We did use sprues on our railroad. We needed fish in our river and carved fish out of brownish sprue. My wife and several members said nice - HO whales?! You have to balance scale size with something that will be visible. Visitors quickly spot the fish in the river.
RutlandRay