I’ve found lots of ABS architectural details for scratch-building on Ali-Express. Is ABS compatible with styrene - ie; can you glue it to stryrene parts with styrene glue, or do you have to use CA, or another type of glue?
There are special glues for ABS.
Maybe some of the “hotter” solvents that work on styrene could handle ABS as well.
Tamiya has a bottle labeled ABS
MEK should work but I would go with Tamiya
Thanks. Will it also work on styrene, or just dissolve it? ie; if I want to glue ABS parts to styrene?
I have never tried.
Test it on some scrap pieces first.
One option is to use the ABS glue for ABS-to-ABS and then
epoxi for the joints with styrene.
Test first, look for alternatives afterwards
In my experience, ABS glue works on ABS and on styrene. Glue for styrene (Tamiya extra thin) doesn’t work well on ABS but it works a little. I have read but not experienced that ABS glue can be hard on styrene so perhaps test on a sprue?
Editing: my experience is with plastruct bondene. I see that it says it works on ABS and styrene. That particular glue works better on ABS than on styrene. It works well on plastruct products but has not worked that well on styrene in model kits. If I cut a piece of plastruct to fill a gap for example on a styrene kit, tamiya extra thin works fine but it’s usually held in some kind of gap anyway.
You could always add a “skin” of thin styrene to the mating surface of the ABS part using the hot ABS glue, then use styrene glue to attach the “skin” to the plastic model. I do similar with resin parts so I can use styrene glue to attach them and have a bit of wiggle time…
Tamiya Extra Thin will dissolve ABS, but not as readily as polystyrene — you will have to hold the parts together for longer to prevent them falling apart before the glue takes hold. (I just tried this today with some bits of sprue for the stand from the Bandai Star Wars B-Wing I’ve been building, because I was curious )
Thanks for the info. Good to know for future building with different materials.
Back in the 1980’s this was my go to for bonding ABS with styrene. It works well with Tamiya grade styrene no idea on the modern very soft styrenes. It might be a little strong unless used sparingly.
A small 0/3 brush is better for application than the bottle brush etc.
Save money and get a pint of SCIGRIP Weld-On #3.
I’ve been using it for years. It bonds ABS to ABS, ABS to Polystyrene, Polystyrene to Polystyrene
SCIGRIP:
"Contains Methylene Chloride (75-09-2), Trichloroethylene (79-01-6) and Methyl Methacrylate Monomer (80-62-6). Methylene Chloride is considered a cancer causing material. OSHA has established special requirements for work place monitoring and protection when Methylene Chloride is used. Extent of health risk depends on level and duration of exposure, as well as individual sensitivity. "
This is the type of parts I want to use, but I would also have to glue them to a styrene structure. Unfortunately, they’re only made from ABS plastic.


I would try Tamiya Ultra Thin first.
If that fails I would switch to the Tamiya ABS stuff,
test on some scrap styrene first.
The trick with all those pure solvent type plastic “welding” chemicals
is to apply them sparingly with a very small paintbrush.
Small as in the brush you would use for painting a 1/35 figure face.