Korber Fire Escape Kits

necrails posted:

A question and a request.  How do you hold the side onto these things while waiting for the glue to set?  I have more super glue on me, the table top, the cat , than I have on the railings.  Is there a trick or better technique I need to learn?

The Korber instructions provide two (2) straight on pictures of the assembled kit.  Can anyone provide a top down or angled view so I can see what is described in the instructions?

A picture of what you are doing would be very helpful - hold the side of what?  CA may not be the bet choice here and more does not always equal better with this adhesive. 

A picture of the cat would also be of value -- entertainment -- could glue cat to the table top?

mwb posted:

A picture of what you are doing would be very helpful - hold the side of what?  CA may not be the bet choice here and more does not always equal better with this adhesive. 

What Martin sez...

The Korber fire escapes are actually made by Tichy Products, I do believe.  They're styrene plastic.  Ergo, when I've assembled these (e.g., check out the Ameritowne Midtown Hotel!!) I've used Testors Liquid Cement for styrene....the stuff in a plastic bottle with a metal needle applicator for precise, minimal application.  No problem with the puddytats....or Golden Retrievers, in my case.  

This cement will take care of the assembly of the fire escapes.  However, if you intend to cement the F/E assembly to the Korber building, I'd recommend doing that with CA.   And, yes, as Martin sez, 'More is not better'.  

OTOH, because the F/E's are relatively fragile and not very forgiving should the building be moved occasionally with careless maneuvers so characteristic of homo sapiens, I've taken to adding a couple rods beneath each F/E floor which simply insert into holes bored into the building walls.  That way I can deal with the F/E's (move, store, paint, etc.) separately from the building.  But, TEHO......it works to my advantage, but maybe not the choice of others.

FWIW, of course......always.

KD

Thanks for the responses, the instructions state to use CA glue, perhaps I should buy one that sets quicker.  So I answered my question about the image by using Google, who knew?  In the image you can see there is a base(floor) with a railing piece that attaches to the two sides and the front (the part facing the viewer).  I have tried Tenex but the results are not so good.  The upside is that stuff doesn't stick to anything.  

The idea about rods or some other form of attachment to the building is one worth looking into.  Right now these will all be attached to Ameritown buildings.  Kittenzilla may have other ideas once they are in place.   For those wishing an animal that is a constant supervisor of all things human I would strongly urge you to adopt a Tonkinese.  They seem more than willing to lend a paw to every project throughout the house. 

NECrails:

See https://ogrforum.com/t...it-942-midtown-hotel about half way down where I talk about assembly of the fire escapes. Hope this helps.

Joe

Joe, what glue did you use, Plastruct?  How did you support the 3 sides of the assembly while the glue was setting up?  Weights, some sort of jig?

Plastruct Plastic Weld (I was not sure what the gray material was and I also was going to bond white styrene to it).

I use what are called 123 blocks - machined blocks that measure 1 x 2 x 3 inches (MicroMark) to hold everything perpendicular and straight while the glue sets (about 20 secs). The blocks are shown below.

So we had rain, ice and assorted messiness here in NJ on Sunday.  A great opportunity to build the remaining 8 fire escapes.  Using Plastruct Plastic Weld (which i had tucked away on a shelf) instead of the CA recommended in the instructions resulted in a quick and easy build.  Set up was about 60 seconds or less.  No sticky fingers, smell from the plastruct kept the cat at arms length, everything was nice and straight.  It took longer to separate and trim the pieces from the spru than it did to assemble.  Thanks for the comments, on to installing on the buildings!