Just read the Basic and Advanced Tips and Techniques for Styrene Modeling book by Evergreen from cover to cover (we were away from the computer on a camping trip ). A great book, without being a commercial for Evergreen. It is comprehensive, with a few things missing, but overall, a must have for any modeler's bookshelf. Here is the table of contents: <UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>The Case for Styrene, 40 Years Later! <LI>Equipping the Styrene Workshop <LI>Working With Styrene Sheet & Strip <LI>Scratchbuilding Basic Boxes <LI>Working With Styrene Kits <LI>Kitbashing and Conversions <LI>Detailing Techniques <LI>Basic Painting and Finishing <LI>Advanced Finishing Techniques <LI>Scratchbuilding Projects and Techniques <LI>Sources and Index [/list]
Ten87, I use alot of evergreen syrene, but I also like to work with Plastruct. The evergreen I use is mostly the sheet stock. I use the plastruct to frame or form up stuctures and sheath it with evergreen plastic sheeting. Most times i'll use the plastruct weld to glue both together. A very uniform glue and as strong as a weld on metal. It actually melts the plastic to a degree and "welds" it to the pieces together to form a strong bond. I get into plastic forming and even have to heat bend it at times to get the contour I may need and I bought a plexiglass heated bender for it and works great! I could take a piece of pipe, real steel pipe, and lay it on the bender and let it get hot and lay a piece of evergreen plastic sheet on the pipe and in about 15 to 20 minutes that piece of plastic looks like a round pipe actually used to form a plastic boiler for a loco if needed on a special application. Say i'd need a boiler to an old TYCO steamer, well to buy one for replacememnt is impossible because TYCO is no longer around to buy from so i'd make that boiler i'd need. And do the work as i've said. But most times I try the best I possibly can to make it from a metal of some type to add weight to the loco and so on. I have to admit though the plastic work is alot easier to do then to make it from brass tubing or aluminum. But I have done the metal work before and its fun and creates a nice boiler but still alot of work to do so with metals. [ 13 May 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
John, we did quite a bit of work with Plexiglass, and used MEK (Methyl-Ethyl-Keytone) from an insulyn shringe to apply tiny parts, or a small paint brush for along building corners. For styrene, we used MDC (Methylene-Di-Chloride). Both solvents are highly evaporative, and explosive around open flame, but do litterly weld the plastic without any buildup or residue. They were also available in a Drug Store for pennies to what the Hobby Shops charged for a 1/2 ounce bottle.
There are lots of tips like these in the book. MEK is the primary ingredient of the Testor's cement. A pint from the Home Depot should last forever. They give several methods for bending styrene in the book. One is to soften the plastic in 180 degree water. I was thinking of filling a crockpot with salt and using it to bend sheet stock, the same way my optometrist bent frames on my glasses. The book isn't everything there is to know about working with styrene, but it is very comprehensive and inspirational...
Watash, I'll be out and about looking for that MEK and the others. It does make sence! And way cheaper on the wallet too I imagine too! And last almost for ever (depending on what items I decide to build and make to sell. It might last and then again it might not, concidering all the building I get into! At the present time i'm working on building a bunch of log cars like the ones Bachmann made for G scale but in HO scale so i'm downsizing them. But MDC "Roundhouse" sells a 3 car kit for what??? $10 or $15? Well I thought about it and I can make 3 cars totally finished for like $6 at regular price of Plastruct. But seeming in my good fortune I got to buy out a hobby shop of the whole dang Plastruct center including the display for $100!!! So i'm good to go for awhile. I got the big Plastruct display in the store being it was selling out of Plastruct all together and was going to carry Evergreen scale models plastics instead of Plastruct. So me and the owner talked about it and made a deal on it and I got the whole thing. Alot of plastic shaped and things and so on. But I got a few pieces that will make a nice steel frame for log cars so.... Thats what i've been wanting and now instead of buying them i'm going to build them and even make them for sale at $4.00 a car, and as much detail as I can possibly get into one car for that price as well. But they are just down scaled versions of the Bachmann G scale log cars. All but the Bachmann's are modeled to represent wood and mine are going to be steel. [ 14 May 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Ed, The crock pot is a good idea, and if you will go back in the archives and find my forum on "How To, Tips", I use various sizes of bread pans on a hot plate with salt in them to form plastics too. A thin layer of salt on a cooky sheet, is a good way to relax "Blister Pacs" back into flat sheets, or pre-heat before vacuum forming. It is invaluable for streching shapes like I beams too. (That is a good way to get smaller sized I beams, angle irons, and pipes, you know.)
I remember, watash! I remember. As I was reading the section on bending, I was flashing back to your original posts...
Ok Ten87, and Watash, You's 2 have me here i'm kinda lost in this salt and water thing how did you flaten blister packs??? Put salt in a pan of some sort and water in it as well and heat it and then put the blister pack in it or what??? To make a clear plastic blister pack flat is a invalueable technique, i'm wanting to learn this trade forsure I have a hugh collection of blister packs used for window glass etc.. And sadly I use the flat parts and throw away the non flat surfaces. How is this done???? This of all things seem simple and its a new subject to me. This is one I never knew of, or even heard of. Watash if possible e-mail it to me. I bend and form plastic using a plexiglass heat bender and a metal shape of the needs I have to form plastic but it seems that you may have a better way to do so. I'm willing to listen and read to learn this one!!!!
Don't mix the salt and water, there is enough salt water on the planet already! The Evergreen book uses a pan of 180 degree water to soften the plastic enough to bend it. The hot salt is just that, hot salt. By dipping the plastic into the salt, the heat is localized to the area submurged and just that section can be bent. If you go to the optometrist, you'll see that's how they bend frames of glasses to fit.
Ten87, Thanks! You and Watash kinda had me confused on that one because the way it read it seemed as if you were mixing water and salt. But you were actually making water hot to make the plastic plyable (all of it) and the heated salt is just to bend the plastic in a certain area that was submerged. I understand it now...... THANKS
Now you got it John. If you want to screw up a credit card, move a cigarette lighter back and forth under a credit card, and watch the embossed numbers relax and flatten out! You can still read the numbers, but they wont print a sales slip anymore. This was done (it is illegal) by a couple of guys who were buying things on credit, but they had flattened a couple of numbers, so never got the bill. Blister packs are vacuumed from large flat sheets. when re-heated, they relax back nearly flat, and can be re-formed again. We made forms to pour waxes for lost wax castings from these forms. The wax melts at a lower temperature than the styrene. If you use a flat plate of aluminum, the thin layer of salt will support the styrene (so it wont stick) and just when the blister is gone, lay a second hot plate on top and let cool. You will have a full size flat sheet. There is some marking where sharp bends were though. Experiment, you learn lots, and its cheap too. If you needed domes for steamers, turn several, and mount them on a flat plate with a "picture frame" clamped around the outside edges. Have a small air hole through the plate, threaded for an air hose fitting. With the sheet of styrene clamped allaround the edges air tight, place a heat lamp or use a heat gun, and turn on your vacuum pump. The finished domes are easy to cut and shape to fit a boiler, and the surface is good for paint. You can fill the inside with lead putty, or Dev-Con epoxy to add weight too. Sneeky, huh? (You can buy all this from the Vacuum Forming people, of course, for $$$)
In the early sixties, Mattel toys had a gadget called the VAC-U-FORM. It was a little bigger than a toaster and had a hand-pump vacuum and a heater. You place an original item to be moulded on top of the unit, and a piece of styrene over the heater. You floped the hot styrene over the item and start pumping. The styrene is pulled tight over the original, and when it cools, you have a pretty good likeness (though the thickness of the styrene bigger). I used to make copies of Hot Wheels, toy boats, etc. It's used a lot by RC pilots to model the clear styrene cockpits for their models. I recently picked up an original, 1962 VAC-U-FORM on eBay for about $25. Check out the current listings here. Just make sure you don't order the Incredible Edibles machine too! I don't think you can use that on the railroad. [ 17 May 2001: Message edited by: ten87 ]
