Styrene Masters Please Enter

Dave,

I think you are going to have to de-bond the warped piece and replace it.  When you do, cut to correct dimensions, use a medium CA to position it correctly, and then hit it with Insta-Set. 

I hope that helps.

George

Can you describe exactly what we're seeing in the third picture? Without all the information, I'd say that the humped piece needs to be gently pried away on one end and then apply enough bracing to straighten it.  Then glue as needed.

Dale

George- I considered that and think it's the worst case scenario. It may be necessary in the end though. The warp is within a larger piece of styrene brick work,                 I would need to cut the warped section out. This happens to be where the side door is.

Dale- The third photo was my attempt at bracing the inside of the warp. Thank you for your suggestion.

Dave

Pull the wood out and redo it all with styrene.  Use a plastic solvent glue, not superglue and weld it all together. Tenax, same stuff, tamiya, testors, faller expert, all of it will work. Or a can of MEK (not the substitute) from Home Depot.
Clamp it how you want it and apply your glue. Go easy on it, because if it runs it’ll eat the outer finish.

@luvindemtrains posted:

George- I considered that and think it's the worst case scenario. It may be necessary in the end though. The warp is within a larger piece or styrene brick work,                 I would need to cut the warped section out. This happens to be where the side door is.

Dave

I see what you mean, but I'm not sure you have much of a choice.  May I ask how it came to be warped so badly?

George

The warping could have been caused by the type of glue used. I built an old American Lightweight Car Co. passenger car from a kit. All the major components were styrene so I used Testors liquid styrene cement. After a year or so the sides of the car started to warp and it eventually got to the point the roof wouldn't stay on. No additional bracing helped and I had to trash the car.

From reading various blogs, warping can be an issue if you use a "hot" styrene glue like Testors. Over time it outgasses and causes warping. The recommendation was to use only as much styrene cement to get a decent bond, but then that's hard to gauge and you run the risk of parts falling off over time because you didn't use enough glue.

I still use styrene cement but not on long runs of styrene sheet. For that I use a thick CA glue. You also has to be careful about the CA glue used because most outgas over time and will fog clear windows and paint. I use Bob Smith Industries Gold thick CA glue which has never caused me any fogging problems.

In your case I doubt bracing is going to help much. You are probably going to have to replace the piece.

Ken

I appreciate all of the suggestions. After watching some videos, I realized I was onto something with the heat. I felt good about the "experiment" because I tried it before any suggestions or videos. What I ended up doing is putting the weights on the warped area. After that I took the heat gun and moved it around the area. When I tried this the other night I didn't do it long enough for fear of melting the plastic. The trick is to keep the gun moving and not keep it on the same area too long. I will monitor this for a few days to see if it stays in place or warps again.

Dave

Looks great, Dave!  Glad you solved it.

George

I am glad that worked. I never tried this.

I have never had styrene warp using any liquid plastic cement. My guess is that you may be using way more glue than necessary for a good bond. It would be helpful to know the make and model of the kit. Also, what brand and type of glue did you use?  With that info, those of us who, like myself, regularly build kits might be able to shed more light on the issue.

Looks good!

Dale

@DennisB posted:

I have never had styrene warp using any liquid plastic cement. My guess is that you may be using way more glue than necessary for a good bond. It would be helpful to know the make and model of the kit. Also, what brand and type of glue did you use?  With that info, those of us who, like myself, regularly build kits might be able to shed more light on the issue.

Hi Dennis,

This was not a kit and was scratch built. I believe the adhesive used was Plastruct Plastic Weld (MEK).

Dave

Is the foundation that the previous warped wall  sitting on plastic and did you glue the wall to it or was it just sitting on top?

Dennis,

The main structure was never glued to the base. It just sits on top of it as of now.

Dave

@DennisB posted:

I have never had styrene warp using any liquid plastic cement. My guess is that you may be using way more glue than necessary for a good bond.

Too much solvent "glue" trapped in between layers will cause warps and distortions.