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stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 2:55 pm
by Crashpilot
Somewhere on some kind of forum, I read about stuff that can make polystyrene glue loose.
I bought 2 second-hand kits, just for cannibalizing them for spares.
But that guy used so much glue on it, that I have to make the plastic crack, to get the spares out!
I remember faintly that it´s something that car mechanics use to un-weld things, and that you shouldn´t leave it
on the plastic for too long, cause it´s quite aggressive, and makes the plastic melt, after a while.

Re: stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 4:41 pm
by iggie
Not sure about anything that will 'unstick' plastic that has effectively been welded by liquid poly or similar, but I have had limited success using liquid glues (Humbrol Liquid Poly, Tamiya Extra Thin etc.) to melt a welded join and allow me to tear it apart without too much damage...but then only on recently glued joins, not anything of any age.

A razor saw might be more use? :grin:

Re: stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 8:56 pm
by Crashpilot
...a razor saw in most cases, yes.
But I want to save some wheel wells from a Revell Spitfire wreck, to transplant them into a Heller Spitfire.
But the former owner glued the wheels in with a big gulp of liquid poly, I´d saw the well into shreds, then.

Re: stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 10:07 pm
by Gregers
You may be out of luck in that case as liquid poly melts the parts together, the more glue used the more it will melt.i would just try gently prying the wheel out moveng around it to break the join. I personally don't know of any product that will seperate the join unfortunately. Sorry I can't be of more help.

All the best.

Greg

Re: stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 1:56 am
by SJPONeill
Put the model in the freezer overnight - the extreme cold will make the joins more brittle than the plastic and you can (usually) snap the pieces apart along the weld...you still have some cleaning up to do and there's no guarantees especially with smaller parts but it's the only way that i know that doesn't have a higher attendant risk of simply dissolving the whole thing into a gooey mess...

Re: stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 8:51 pm
by Crashpilot
Thank you, I´ll try that ;-)

Re: stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: October 11th, 2017, 9:55 am
by Old_Tonto
Did it work crash?

Re: stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: October 14th, 2017, 6:03 pm
by Crashpilot
...it helped me to take out one of the wheels, the other one´s still stuck inside.
Now I put the model upside down into the freezer, before doing so, I let some drops of water into the wheel well -
I hope the freezing water will weaken the join!

Re: stuff that makes plastic glue un-stick?

Posted: December 5th, 2017, 6:53 pm
by Crashpilot
...after leaving it in the freezer for almost 2 months, I remembered something....
that was a good tip! Wheel came out very easily, by lifting it out with a tweezer.
Before the freezer trick, I was only damaging the surface detail, and nuthin happened!