Ambroid and Duco Cement

It look like both cements are still available on Amazon or eBay.

Original Ambroid and Duco cements were both nitrocellulose cements. I know Ambroid changed some time ago as its more of a contact cement now like Walthers Goo or Pliobond. I have not used Duco in years so not sure if its the same or not.

That said I would not build a kit with the originals if you can find it. All my structures that I used Ambroid on are returning to kit form. It has dried out and no longer bonding parts together. Save the nostalgia for Post War.

Pete

Duco Cement seems to be available just about anywhere; both local hardware stores here have it.

That said, if I'm using a contact type cement my go to is Goo...FWIW.

Mark in Oregon

Yeah, I'm kind of in Pete's camp. While I have a tube of Duco on hand, I find CA to be better (and *much* quicker setting!) in most settings, especially with plastic, and I tend toward white glue or wood glue for fibrous materials and where I need to securely fill a less-than-tight join.

At best, the only way anyone would know what you used (at least, until it fell apart!) is if you tell them, so instead of using a less-than-ideal adhesive in order to boast about the authenticity, you can just tell this story and boast instead about *avoiding* the consequences of authenticity!

Thanks for the discussion so far.

Steve, it isn't about boasting authenticity; more about wondering what it was like a few years back.  Along the lines of Pete's comment, I am finding out that nitrocellulose cement allows for quick and easy deconstruction back to kit form.   A short bath in acetone quickly dissolves the glue joints leaving the wood parts looking almost new. I suppose I'll just use CA or white glue.

Thanks again.

PHM

@phm0 posted:

Steve, it isn't about boasting authenticity; more about wondering what it was like a few years back.  Along the lines of Pete's comment, I am finding out that nitrocellulose cement allows for quick and easy deconstruction back to kit form.   A short bath in acetone quickly dissolves the glue joints leaving the wood parts looking almost new. I suppose I'll just use CA or white glue.

Well, as I recall doing plastic kits with Duco some six or seven decades ago, the process was quite messy, often tedious and more than a bit uncertain, and IMHO there's nothing about Duco, vintage or modern, that I can think of that CA doesn't do better and quicker, once you master its quirks. And the next fully assembled plastic kit I want to be able to deconstruct will be my first -- having used my precious time to put all the fiddly bits together in the first place, the *last* thing I want to happen is to see it all apart again! -- so that feature is of little use AFAICS.

YMMV, so knock yourself out (a distinct possibility without proper ventilation BTW!), but I think the newer adhesives are a lot easier to work with and produce a generally better result than some of the old standbys.

Just for fun thought I would use period cement which I believe would be Ambroid or Duco.

For fun, sure, but I've rebuilt too many kits that have spontaneously disassembled with those old glues that I would not be using them today.

For almost all wood joints I'm using a carpenter's glue (Titebond), for end grain and white metal castings to wood I'm using Goo & CA, and for styrene I''m now using MEK which I detest due to the smell and inherent hazard level.

DUCO is like a old Testor's airplane glue for wood.  Most plastic kits required a solvent plastic glue for styrene plastic.  I would try E6000 that is clear and flexible and will glue plastic permanently if your rough up the parts and and un-roughed up, can be disassembled if wanted.   E6000 has replaced my old favorite Goodyear Pliobond for a strong, flexible, waterproof glue.  It is great for gluing back on those rubber soles on modern shoes.

Charlie