I am about to start a long length of walling and road laying that involves sticking plasticard embossed brick sheets and Ratio panels of sets for the roadway onto wood and MDF formers.

Can you please advise on your preferred adhesive.  Had a look in the index and couldn't see any direct references to glue/adhesives.

Cheers,  Mike

Ask Jeff (Gwent Rail) about using double sided tape Mike.  Seems stupid but apparently it works well.  In my experience, these two products are the very devil to stick together in large quantities, probably because one is porous and the other isn't, and one is solvent susceptible whilst the other isn't.  Otherwise, when I was ship modelling, we used to coat the timber with fibre-glass resin first but that isn't appropriate for attic (or indoor) use !!

Mike

I use Copydex for a lot of my mixed material work. It is quite slow drying but adheres very well, comes in big tubs and does not damage plastics. I swear by the stuff for scenic work. I use it to lay cork, track, walls, fences, paving and many other things. As with any glue it is worth testing on a small area first.

The other glue I use is UHU or Bostick but this can work out to be pricey and both are stringy, but give a strong weld. Be aware that some plasticards warp badly when attached to other materials when using glues like these.

Bob(K)

 

I thought Jeffs idea of using double sided tape was a good, for me I have always used PVA, and then put weight ontop while it dried, and then after it has never moved.

 

PVA will bond wood to plasticard, of that there is no doubt. The way Alan suggested doing it is the way.

However, why anybody would want to go to the trouble and mess of using this method is totally beyond me !!! The same goes for sticking a flat sheet of anything to a flat sheet of something else. For crissake do yourself a favour and buy some double sided adhesive tape. I use Sellotape brand, 15mm wide or Kwikgrip brand which is 50mm wide, but it really does not matter which brand you use, it all sticks two surfaces together like sh*t to a blanket.

Wipe clean and dry the surfaces to be bonded on both sheets, cover one surface with tape (make sure most of the surface is covered, especially the edges), remove the protective backing, press on second sheet. Do not try to prise apart unless you want to cause damage to one of the sheets     ……      simple.

When I bond two sheets of plasticard in this way, I do run some plastic weld around the edges after, but it's not because a better bond is needed, it's just to seal the edge and make it look like one sheet.

Thanks fellas

I do have some good quality double sided tape however the widest is only 12mm.  50mm would seem to be more useful for this job but I have not seen kwikgrip brand - is it easily obtainable?

My intention was to run a length of microstrip down the centre of the road surface panels to produce a slight camber on the road so I'll need a strong bond as the thicker ratio panels will be under some strain.  Maybe I should warm up the panels to try and create a slight curvature before laying them.

One thought I had since posting the question was …… has anyone used "No More Nails" adhesive in this situation?

Cheers,

Mike 

Kwickgrip brand is what they sell (or used to) in some of the cheap shops, Mike. Don't worry about the brand name, it's all pretty good. Your 12mm would be fine, you'll just have to lay down more stips to cover the surface.

As for the camber, I'd lay the micro strip down first with a sliver of tape, covering it (and the rest of the road surface) with your tape after. I've seen Ken Ball using Wills sheets on a curved surface in this way. He used hot water to make the sheets pliable, a quick drying off with a towel and then laid them whilst still warm and pliable   …   worked a treat.

The no-more-nails idea should also work, but the problem would be holding it in place until the glue dried.

Thanks Jeff,

I'll try the hot water on the sheets, getting a preformed curve would certainly make things easier.

I have also got a flat pavement to do so I might just try out the "No More Nails" as an experiment to see how well it works.  Just used it to fix a balsa wood top to retaining walling I got from International Models which is an embossed foam and it worked brilliantly

http://www.internationalmodels.net/acatalog/Main_Catalogue_Index_Retaining_Walls_40.html

Cheers, Mike

Double sided tape gets my vote! I do wonder though whether in time (decades) it dries out and goes brittle like cellotape? All my track on Catcott is stuck (OK, not quite the same but plastic against cork sheet) down with double sided tape, hopefully the PVA soacked ballast will help any shortcomings… so far so good.

No more nails sound very interesting… :-)

I guess the drying out issue is something that may need to be considered over a long period of time, Chris. Good job I seal the edges of two sheets of plasticard bonded together with DS tape, by brushing on a little plastic weld. Next time I see Ken Ball at an exhibition (could be a long time) I'll have to ask him about the drying out issue. Certainly he says nothing about it in his book.

[user=3]Gwent Rail[/user] wrote:

The no-more-nails idea should also work, but the problem would be holding it in place until the glue dried.

Jeff

I have used no-more-nails effectively. To hold things in place I used map or notice board pins, the ones with plastic heads. I used this method to glue down curved inclines which were very springy.

Bob(K)

I'm guessing that when using the double sided tape you get one attempt at lining things up? No slip?

 Mike

It is possible to lay one sheet very gently on top of the other and slightly adjust (but only just possible). Certainly any pressure on the surface of the two sheets ends any hope of re-aligning.

I'm always very precise and very careful though and always do a "dry fit" before I take off the last protective surface. If you do make a big mistake and haven't totally pressed the two together, it's just possible to part two sheets of plasticard by applying plastic majic onto the surfaces that are partly stuck together. But it's best avoided.

OK, an old thread but because the double-sided tape has been mentioned recently, I thought I would resurrect it again with a question or two. ( & if they seem stupid, forgive me as the New Year has only been going for a day or so & my brain is not upto speed yet).


Q1. Double-side Tape ( DST) is thicker than glue so if I wanted to make a wall, visible from both sides, one eighth thick of two pieces, they each have to be thinner than one sixteenth?


Q2. Jeffs comment from above  I seal the edges of two sheets of plasticard bonded together with DS tape, by brushing on a little plastic weld.  I get the idea but if the DST is thick - what 1/16th ? how would this seal the edges ?

 

Now to go & read the Sunday morning paper while answers come flooding in.

I must admit that I've been put off by the thickness of DST, but it does stick like the proverbial.  Perhaps someone who uses it a lot could do a "how to," on say, right angle, butt and lap joints so we can see the mechanics of the process.

[user=95]Sol[/user] wrote:

Q1. Double-side Tape ( DST) is thicker than glue so if I wanted to make a wall, visible from both sides, one eighth thick of two pieces, they each have to be thinner than one sixteenth?


Q2. Jeffs comment from above  I seal the edges of two sheets of plasticard bonded together with DS tape, by brushing on a little plastic weld.  I get the idea but if the DST is thick - what 1/16th ? how would this seal the edges ?

 

Both of these questions pre-suppose a tape 1/16th thick - you must be looking at the wrong stuff, Sol.
" Sellotape" brand DSA tape and all the cheap versions I've used would need quite a few layers to be that thick. It's almost exactly the same thickness as standard Sellotape.


[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

I must admit that I've been put off by the thickness of DST, but it does stick like the proverbial.  Perhaps someone who uses it a lot could do a "how to," on say, right angle, butt and lap joints so we can see the mechanics of the process.

These type of joints are easy, Max - use something else exclam: DSA tape needs some thickness of material to work. I have done a right angle joint with it, but not with material less than 3mm thick. In that case I laid some tape on both surfaces and then just pressed together.

Here's an example:-


The internal right angle join of the wall (right of photo) was fitted with tape on the edge of the piece running front to back of the board. You can see the thickness by looking at the front (exposed) edge, in this case about 5mm.


 

[user=3]Gwent Rail[/user] wrote:

These type of joints are easy, Max - use something else exclam: 

No sure what that means, Jeff.

I've not seen DST tape less than 2 - 3 mm thick.  Thin as Selotape sounds good.  The joint will be as strong as the tape itself.  Does it come off the roll with a separate backing which you peel off?

Do you put the tape across the joint like you were sticking two pices of paper together, say edge to edge?

How do you do an inside joint, say like the corners of building walls?  Do you lay the two walls down, stick the tape across the joint and then stand it up?

I used to have a roll of DST - it was VERY thin. You'd never even know it was there.  And no, I haven't a clue where we purchased it. We used it to stick lino down.  The roll was about 2" wide, I think.

Mike

I just happened to find a pack of Sellotape   double side tape & yes, it is not much thicker then normal Magic tape - I was always thinking of the thick stuff like joining carpet or similar .

Max    - http://www.sellotape.com.au/item.aspx?SG=4000003&S=8113&P=4021457&I=2030

Hi Max, my replies to your questions are in red, on your original post.

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

[user=3]Gwent Rail[/user] wrote:

These type of joints are easy, Max - use something else exclam: 

No sure what that means, Jeff. Exactly what it says, Max, don't use DSA tape for this type of joint.

I've not seen DST tape less than 2 - 3 mm thick.  Thin as Selotape sounds good.  The joint will be as strong as the tape itself.  Does it come off the roll with a separate backing which you peel off?  Correct :thumbs

Do you put the tape across the joint like you were sticking two pices of paper together, say edge to edge?

How do you do an inside joint, say like the corners of building walls?  Do you lay the two walls down, stick the tape across the joint and then stand it up?  DSA tape is not suitable for making corner joints or for end-to-end joints of two thin sheets of material that do not have a backing sheet. In building construction, use the tape to join the various layers of each wall and then (after sealing the edges with a wipe of solvent as I described) join the walls together in the normal way. By it's very nature, DSA tape is only really effective for bonding two flat surfaces together - which is the context for which I recommended it.