Hi all!

Playing around with some Monolote scraps....seems like I can stick 'em together REAL good with acetone. Paint a bit on the glue side of a "trim" piece and lay it down on another and in a few minutes it is stuck down good enough that if I try to peel off the trim bit, the underlying layer pulls off of balsa wood before the covering will come apart. No bubbles between the layere either.

Has anyone tried to use acetone for covering purposes? Any known down sides?

T/F Monokote trim solvent is comprised of three solvents...none of which are acetone...though as you have experienced...acetone works. I think the thing in question here is "working time" as the three solvents offer MUCH more than simply acetone. Other than that...hey...save some money if it works for you!

I have only used acetone. The nearest hobby shop is an hour drive from home and I don't know if they even stock trim solvent. Acetone is readily available at the local Wally World store at a cost of under $3 a quart. I have done two covering jobs using acetone to join the sections and have had no major problems even considering my lack of experience with plastic coverings. I wrote an article outlining the method I used. It is posted on my web page.

Howard

Thanks for replying, I had read that artcle months ago, but could not remember where! I've got your site book-marked now!

Monokote trim solvent does indeed have acetone in it. Gamma bytyrol acetone, whatever that is.

I just got this formula for putting on trim out of the tips and techniques forum. See Curt D's Post #4 Trim sheets and Trim Solvent - How do I.

The active ingredient in trim solvent is acetone. (see the label)
Works perfectly for pennies on the $.

Lightfoot, what a great website! I too have bookmarked it to read completely.

One question on this topic. Is it possible to apply the acetone to the top of the bottom piece, and then apply the top piece with the correct overlap? It seems this would avoid the possibility of smears while painting on the acetone.

I think that the acetone would evaporate before you got the top layer in place. It is my experience that if you paint it on the adhesive surface without too much diddling about, the adhesive isn't really soft enough to start smearing before you lay the covering down. You do have to be carefull however that you don't squish all of the adhesive/colour out from under the covering when you press it onto the underylying surface.

Time will tell if my methodology is any good, but I have been getting very nice results by ironing on the covering at a temp that is only as hot as required to melt the adhesive, not hot enough to shrink the material or cause bubbles. Then I go back and wipe some acetone along the edges to lock the trim down.