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Is Tenax-7R Plastic Welder Still Being Made?

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Posted by railandsail on Saturday, March 2, 2019 5:48 PM

zstripe

Yes it is gone....has been around 2013/14. There was a thread on it about that time on the forums. You could actually find the thread faster by using Google. A lot of distributors had quite a few cases of it until it ran out. Like a lot of other things that are no longer made.

Take Care! Big Smile

Frank

EDIT:

Dave Nelson posted this on Jan 22, 2013: From the other thread I was referring to:

TENAX 7R
Posted by dknelson on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 8:51 PM

For those of you who liked using Tenax as a bonding agent for styrene and have noticed it is not readily found at the LHS, I received the following email the other day from JMD Plastics of Green Bay WI

Dave Nelson:

As many of you may know, it has been impossible to get the highly popular TENAX 7R plastic welder for use in gluing together styrene models, sheets, etc....Ironically, this product was distributed by Hebco, just down the road from us near LaCrosse, Wisconsin. At one point, they even asked us for 10,000 pieces of styrene so they could demonstrate their product at shows they attended. Well, their e-mail, phone, etc....is no longer in service. And good luck finding a back stock of TENAX at any hobby shop or even on E-Bay! (I know--we tried---and bought up as many bottles as we could find!)

That being said, we have been working with the same folks who helped us to bring our Instant Track-Tack-It and Grass-Tack-It products to you to design a replacement product. In mid December, we finalized the product after much testing and then made our initial marketing test at a recent train show in Kansas City with RESOUNDING SUCCESS, with hundreds of individual jars and cases sold!

The new product, STYRENE TACK-IT, works exactly the same as Tenax, in the fact that it dries quickly (5-10 seconds), will evaporate if you forget and leave the cap off for a few days, and in truth, acts as a bonder should---"activating" or "melting" the styrene to achieve a solid bond instead of "gluing."

If you mess up a joint, simply apply an additional bead of the STYRENE TACK-IT, pull the bond apart, sand it lightly, and rebond the joint properly!

The retail price on individual jars (1 ounce---same as Tenax jars) is $4.75---less cost than Tenax.

The retail price on a case of 12 is $57.00---also less than a case of Tenax.

Hobby shops wishing to stock the product get will get their standard dealer discount on cases of 12. Call us (920-865-1219) or e-mail us for details.

Individual hobbiests may purchase by the jar or case.

You are receiving this information even before it goes up on our website next week!

Thanks!

JMD Plastics

4492 Annabell Circle

Green Bay, WI 54313

www.jmdplastics.yolasite.com

 
 
 

Found this video presentation for the Styrene Tack-it

 

https://youtu.be/UKut1TZxoR4

 

NOTE: I also found their suggested method of storage of interest,...upside down on the cap to 'presurize the cap' area to help prevent evaporation.

 

 

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Posted by railandsail on Monday, February 25, 2019 6:38 AM

Ethyl Acetate

This stuff came highly recommended on another forum, but I found it did not act as quickly as the old Tenax. Neither did the Plastruck Weld when I tried it a number of years ago.

There were those times that I liked the really quick action of the Tenax. If I recall properly I had (still have in my storage somewhere) a long capillary tube for application.

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Posted by railandsail on Monday, February 25, 2019 6:28 AM

I think he utilized both the loops on the end of the metal strips and some CA. I received some good advice on application of CA on that other tread, and now feel more confident with CA use. It might also be nice to not have to have the loops on some of those metal shims in cases where the guard rails are a bit short,...extend the wing of the shim.

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Posted by mbinsewi on Sunday, February 24, 2019 10:22 AM

railandsail
I believe it would have served me well in my recent attemps to bond styrene strips int the guide rail gaps / flangeways on Peco turnouts. The stuff I used took too long to set up, allowing the styrene strip to soften ever so little with the resulting no-bonding of a portion of the strip due to its wedged toothpics losing their grip.

I don't know what type of plastic the flangeways are, but wouldn't a quick setting CA work better?

How did the guy in the video fasten the brass strips? or does the loop on each end hold them in place?

Mike.

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Posted by railandsail on Sunday, February 24, 2019 10:15 AM

riogrande5761

 

 
Jumijo

When bonding styrene to styrene, they do the job more than adequately.

 

 


I've found it bonds adquately as well, but mainly in situations where I can apply it from the inside with a small brush, but on the outside, it's too easy, due to the lack of viscosity to get it on surfaces and marr the paint or lettering on the model.  Thats why I use different adhesives in different applications.
 

I agree with most of your postings on this subject thread. And I am glad it continues as it brings new light to substitute ahesives.

I was a Tenax user and I liked the way it flowed into the smallest gaps, and its speed of setiing up.

I believe it would have served me well in my recent attemps to bond styrene strips int the guide rail gaps / flangeways on Peco turnouts. The stuff I used took too long to set up, allowing the styrene strip to soften ever so little with the resulting no-bonding of a portion of the strip due to its wedged toothpics losing their grip.

I liked the old Tenax 7 and have NOT discovered a replacement,...but then I have been away from that portion of the hobby since it went out of business,....and my case of the stuff all evaporated without the bottles even being opened!

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Posted by riogrande5761 on Monday, November 5, 2018 2:24 PM

Jumijo

When bonding styrene to styrene, they do the job more than adequately.


I've found it bonds adquately as well, but mainly in situations where I can apply it from the inside with a small brush, but on the outside, it's too easy, due to the lack of viscosity to get it on surfaces and marr the paint or lettering on the model.  Thats why I use different adhesives in different applications.

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

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Posted by Jumijo on Monday, November 5, 2018 2:15 PM

riogrande5761

 

Jumijo

I have lacquer thinner and MEK. Both are a whole lot cheaper than "model glue".

 

Those solvents may not necessarily be substituted for all "model glues".
 
There are also cyanoacrylates, canopy cements,  Gap filling cements.
 

 

When bonding styrene to styrene, they do the job more than adequately.

 

Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale

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Posted by riogrande5761 on Monday, November 5, 2018 1:10 PM

rrinker

And I think those policies are mostly BAD

OK.  Sure.  *shrugs*

 

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

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Posted by rrinker on Monday, November 5, 2018 12:12 PM

 And I think those policies are mostly BAD

The information is the same. Why have 50 threads talking about the same thing get repeated over and over instead of simply adding to the existing thread? How many threads are there here on installing aa DCC decoder in a blue box loco? What does starting a new one have over adding somethign new to one of the existng ones where all the things have been explained already - if you have a new technique, add it to the existing one, so someone searchign for BB DCC installs will find allt he info in one place, not spread across dozens of threads. 

"Me too" posting to old threads - that's somethign compeltely different. In the case of this thread, information on another possibel alternative cement was added Also some updated information on availability of some other alternatives previously mentioned int he old thread. I don;t think that's a bad thing.

Heck, 99% of this hobby is the same thing over and over, with new and updated techniques to accomplish certain goals If the question's already ben asked and answered, just use some common sense, not likely someone will care to see a new solution 10 years after the original post, by now the OP has either applied one of the already suggested solutions, or given up. But this thread is not particularly old, and finding adhesives is still a pretty important part of constructing models.

Maybe it's the way I read forums liek this - in date order of latest post, with any thread with unread posts filtered to the top. I read all the ones of interest to me, so when I am caught up, there generally aren;t any unread posts showign on the first page. I'm here frequently enough that it's unlikely that new posts are on the second page - I'll check if the very last thread on the first page has unread posts, AND it's below the last one that I've compeltely read. That's my indicator for particularly high volume. I don;t read every post, I only read threads that have titles of interest AND contain unread posts - the forum does a good job of differnetiating those. WHen I get to threads that no longer have unread posts, I know I've read them all. Mondays are about the onyl day I ever find a new thread with unread posts below all me read ones - and that's because new users are moderated and anything they post over the weekend doesn't get released until Monday. Always done it that way - which is why any forum software that DOESN'T differentiate threads with unread posts is one I abandon rather quickly.

                                 --Randy

 

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by riogrande5761 on Monday, November 5, 2018 11:56 AM

rrebell

I see I got takin in by an old thread

Happens to me too.  Some forums have a policy against necroing but not here apparently.

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

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Posted by rrebell on Monday, November 5, 2018 9:19 AM

I see I got takin in by an old thread

 

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Posted by rrebell on Monday, November 5, 2018 9:15 AM

jrbernier

  2-3 years ago there was a rumor going around that Tenax-7r was going off the market, as the couple who owned it was getting a divorce.  This led to folks making a run on LHS's and eBay sellers listing bottles for sky-high prices.  What came out of all this is unknown to me, and I have no idea of what is fact or 'Internet' myth.

  A few years before, Micro-Mark had someone 'reverse engineer' the product and they came out with 'Same Stuff'.  They are still selling it in packs of two bottles for the price of one bottle of Tenax-7r.

  Micro-Mark has done similar things over the years when they cannot get the 'discount' from a manufacturer that they want.  NWSL tools used to be sold through Micro-Mark, and now Micro-Mark has copies of these tools branded under their own label.

  I suspect the original Tenax-7r wound up in the same boat.  For what it's worth, I have both Tenax-7r and Same Stuff on my workbench - and they appear similar...

Jim

 

Accually it was a copy of Pro Weld by Ambroid which dissapeered before the Tenax. Personally never liked the Tenax, not as much bite as I like. Loved the Pro Weld but since it is gone use Weld-on 3. A bit stronger but works about the same.

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Posted by PC101 on Saturday, November 3, 2018 11:40 PM

I have a habit of keeping things, so after I read this post, I looked in the box that I would put the Tenax-7r's lid when the bottle became empty one way or another. (IIRC my first bottles had lids with a brush attached). Wow I wonder what I can use all those lids for? Cheapest one has $2.69 on it up to $4.49. I'm still using out of my 2-3-11 stock at $4.49. I looked at my last in stock date of 3-2-12 still at a cost of $4.49. I do have and use a number of the above mentioned glues. I guess I need to see which ones I should over stock up on. Thanks for the infomation guys. Even bringing up an old post is still informative.

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Posted by gmpullman on Saturday, November 3, 2018 7:05 PM

rrinker
Procey? It's cheaper than Tenax was.

When I first looked at the Micro-Mark site I saw a 2 oz. bottle and $17. price.

Now I see that is for TWO 2 oz. bottles.  OR they have a 2 oz. "Refill" for $6. plus whatever their shipping is.

That is a little more reasonable than my first impression.

Regards, Ed

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Posted by rrinker on Saturday, November 3, 2018 6:59 PM

 Tenax 7R seems to have gone the way of the dodo. However, the Micro mark Same Stuff is, pretty literally, the same stuff. Procey? It's cheaper than Tenax was. There's also Plastruct Bondene which I've used and works pretty much the same. Plastruct has 2 different adhesives that, other than the color of the bottle, look identical. They are not. One is for their plastic that they use in their structural shapes, the Bondene is for styrene plastic.

                                     --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by riogrande5761 on Saturday, November 3, 2018 6:37 PM

Jumijo

I have lacquer thinner and MEK. Both are a whole lot cheaper than "model glue".

Those solvents may not necessarily be substituted for all "model glues".
 
There are also cyanoacrylates, canopy cements,  Gap filling cements.

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

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Posted by Jumijo on Saturday, November 3, 2018 6:29 PM

I have lacquer thinner and MEK. Both are a whole lot cheaper than "model glue". 

Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale

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Posted by gmpullman on Saturday, November 3, 2018 6:04 PM

Just as Darwin said I would, I've learned to adapt.

I like this as a "near" substitute:

https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/finishing/extra-thin-cement-2/

(Last time I bought a supply, Horizon Hobby (Atheran) had a very reasonable price.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/tamiya-extra-thin-cement-tam87038

Or this for joints using thicker, slower setting stuff:

https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/faller-170490-expert-super-fast-setting-plastic-cement/

 

Some people say "Same Stuff" is the same stuff. This I have not tried...

https://www.micromark.com/SAME-STUFF-APPLICATOR

Seems a little pricey.

YMMV, Good Luck, Ed

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Posted by G Paine on Saturday, November 3, 2018 4:16 PM

I have been using Plastruct Plastic Weld lately as well

George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch 

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Posted by riogrande5761 on Saturday, November 3, 2018 2:38 PM

I  pulled out my old bottle of Tenax 7R to work on a Lonestar 40' flat bed trailer kit and it was bone dry.  The lid was cracked so that much have been enough to allow what was in the bottle to escape and evaporate.

I've ordered a bottle of Plastruct Plastic Weld off of Ebay since it was highly recommended by our friend Frank in a post above.

I needed something to replace the Tenax that I could brush on to bond plastic.

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

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Posted by JOHN LOESCH on Saturday, August 18, 2018 8:14 AM

In addition to what was recommended, I have used Microscale's MicroPrep as directed along with CA. It does a pretty good job, I have used it to replace handrail sections.

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Posted by riogrande5761 on Monday, January 30, 2017 2:34 PM

Sometimes working time can be needed, but I found in the case of joining the walls of my ADM Grain elevator, Tenax7R, I could hold the parts together, brush it on from the inside, and it would be almost instant so I didn't have to sit there holding it for very long.  Thats one of the hard parts about building some kits is holding parts until they are bonded.

In another case, last weekend I thought I'd finally try to build the end-cages for the Walthers 53' GSC flat car bulkheads.  In that case I tried liquid super glue which normally bonds pretty fast, and I never did get the parts together properly.  I have repeated attempts to simply get two of the parts together, first ended up bonded at the wrong angle, pulled them apart and tried seveal more times.  After two hours, I still only ended up with two of the cage parts together and with a substancial visible gap between them.  I can see why so few Walthers 53' GSC bulkhead flat cars have been built as bulkheads.  What few I've seen built that way didn't look so hot.

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Posted by rrebell on Monday, January 30, 2017 10:40 AM

riogrande5761

 

 
rrebell

Pro-weld is gone. I now use Weld-on 3. Works great but is more toxic than Pro-weld but much much cheaper.

 

 

What the heck, people are recommending adhesives that are no longer on the market?  What is actually available now?

 

I just did Weld-on is available as I just bought some last week. They did change the label but thats it, Weld-on is in smaller print with another name in bold but told it is same stuff, bought it from a plastics store.

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Posted by E-L man tom on Monday, January 30, 2017 10:05 AM

I only use the liquid cement for bonding flat pieces edge to edge and prefer gel cements for everything else. I used my last bottle of Tenax up several years ago and I've heard about the Micro Mark products, MEK and the rest of them. Right now, the only liquid cement I have is Testors liquid cement for plastics/styrene. Has anyone used this product and if so, what are your thoughts? I have only used the Testors product on a limited basis, not enough to really form an opinion. Also, How will this work on Plastruct parts?

Tom Modeling the free-lanced Toledo Erie Central switching layout.
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Posted by zstripe on Sunday, January 29, 2017 6:01 PM

Yes it is gone....has been around 2013/14. There was a thread on it about that time on the forums. You could actually find the thread faster by using Google. A lot of distributors had quite a few cases of it until it ran out. Like a lot of other things that are no longer made.

Take Care! Big Smile

Frank

EDIT:

Dave Nelson posted this on Jan 22, 2013: From the other thread I was referring to:

TENAX 7R
Posted by dknelson on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 8:51 PM

For those of you who liked using Tenax as a bonding agent for styrene and have noticed it is not readily found at the LHS, I received the following email the other day from JMD Plastics of Green Bay WI

Dave Nelson:

As many of you may know, it has been impossible to get the highly popular TENAX 7R plastic welder for use in gluing together styrene models, sheets, etc....Ironically, this product was distributed by Hebco, just down the road from us near LaCrosse, Wisconsin. At one point, they even asked us for 10,000 pieces of styrene so they could demonstrate their product at shows they attended. Well, their e-mail, phone, etc....is no longer in service. And good luck finding a back stock of TENAX at any hobby shop or even on E-Bay! (I know--we tried---and bought up as many bottles as we could find!)

That being said, we have been working with the same folks who helped us to bring our Instant Track-Tack-It and Grass-Tack-It products to you to design a replacement product. In mid December, we finalized the product after much testing and then made our initial marketing test at a recent train show in Kansas City with RESOUNDING SUCCESS, with hundreds of individual jars and cases sold!

The new product, STYRENE TACK-IT, works exactly the same as Tenax, in the fact that it dries quickly (5-10 seconds), will evaporate if you forget and leave the cap off for a few days, and in truth, acts as a bonder should---"activating" or "melting" the styrene to achieve a solid bond instead of "gluing."

If you mess up a joint, simply apply an additional bead of the STYRENE TACK-IT, pull the bond apart, sand it lightly, and rebond the joint properly!

The retail price on individual jars (1 ounce---same as Tenax jars) is $4.75---less cost than Tenax.

The retail price on a case of 12 is $57.00---also less than a case of Tenax.

Hobby shops wishing to stock the product get will get their standard dealer discount on cases of 12. Call us (920-865-1219) or e-mail us for details.

Individual hobbiests may purchase by the jar or case.

You are receiving this information even before it goes up on our website next week!

Thanks!

JMD Plastics

4492 Annabell Circle

Green Bay, WI 54313

www.jmdplastics.yolasite.com

 
 
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Posted by carl425 on Sunday, January 29, 2017 2:45 PM

I have read with interest what everybody uses instead, but I am curious about the original question.  Has anybody seen any definitive information that Tenax-7R is indeed officially off the market forever?

I have the right to remain silent.  By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.

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Posted by Paul D on Sunday, January 29, 2017 9:46 AM

Like Frank, I use Plastruct Bondene with the orange label, for both similar and dissimilar plastics. I found that Tanax evaporated in the bottle over time. A LHS near me doesn't stock Tanax for that reason. 

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Posted by zstripe on Saturday, January 28, 2017 9:19 PM

Riogrande5761,

I did not mean to mislead You about the Ambroid Pro-weld, but if You re-read My post, I did say it was no longer available and that I bought a bunch while it was still being made.

For what You are working on, I would suggest using Plastruct Plastic Weld orange bottle, You have some working time in using it. If You have large surfaces to glue, You can put some on both pieces and not to worry if they start to evaporate, when put together, they will still bond. Then You can go ahead and brush more on in the seams, capillary action will do the rest. I did try to respond last night and after typing a very long msg. with some explainations of some adhesives for alternatives, CS.Trains  timed out for some strange reason and I lost everything I typed. That put Me in a foul mood....so I said the heck with it.

Take Care! Big Smile

Frank

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Posted by riogrande5761 on Saturday, January 28, 2017 4:11 PM

jjdamnit

Not sure what materials you are trying to bond (cement).

Mostly what I have used Tanex 7R for is joining flat part kits together like buildings (like Walthesr ADM grain elevator ) or flat part train cars (Eel River for example).

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

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