Hello fellow tankers!

I bought one of the earliest versions of the Heng Long tanks. The hulls were not equipped with the mounts and studs for the smoke and sound electronics. I bought some plastic tubing from my LHS but am unsure of how to secure it. Use plastic cement or is there a more secure bonding process such as heating? I plan on doing a bit of custom work to this and other tanks, any helpful resources you can steer me towards on working with styrene would be greatly appreciated!

James

I'll give my parents a call and see how they came up with me. J/K

Are you referring to the rigid, plastic mounting points inside to the hull? Your tank must be one of the older models, before smoke and sound, huh? One thing you could do is use the metal ones, like those inside of the Tamiya speaker box. I'm not sure what they are called, but I bet a hobby shop would carry them.

Jason

A long while ago I saw an article that detailed how to make them and secure them so the plastic would be as strong as if it was molded, I cannot find the link.

I'd like to keep it plastic as I already bought the tubing.

Swathdiver:

To get a bond as strong as molded in, you want to use a solvent glue. Some forms of thinner/varsol/turpentine work, but test them on a scrap first. The best is a solvent like Tenax-R or a similar no-name brand like MBS makes (APSC-1). The active ingrediente is Methylene Chloride.

The reason they work is they dissolve the plastic, and then as the solvent evaporates, the styrene re-hardens. Think like softening rice with water and then letting it dry again. As for placing the studs, mount them to the board, then place the board in place, and apply the solvent. A little pressure and the end of the 'studs' shouls squish out a bit, and then let it sit.

As for applicators... a Touch'n'Flow is best, but a fine brass or glass tube (i.e. a pipette) can be used, but for most solvents, an eye-dropper will leak all over before ya get it to your application point (I've tried it) In a pinch, you can use a brush, but make sure its a natural one (wood/metal/hair) as the solvent will slag a plastic one.

Yes, I speak from experience in using it... since trying it, I rarely use tube-glue any more, except as a gap-filler.

Hi Swathdiver,

I had a similar problem.......all I did was to use plastic tube as you are doing but used self tapping screws
to bite thru from the other end of the mounting.......worked a treat to create the PCB mounting pillars etc.

cheers

CaptB

Thanks for the info fellas! Now how about bonding brass to plastic? I lengthened the barrels on my tanks and now everytime they fire, the outter barrel crumbles because the model glue isn't cutting it!