Recipe for Sprue Goo?

Use to do in home dry cleaning. Mostly furniture and curtain fabrics that cannot tolerate water. The cleaning fluid was Hexane. When doing the curtains you started at the bottom and cleaned to the top. The fumes were far heavier than air and you wanted your head above the level of work. If you have to work overhead, you could feel the fumes as they fell across your arms. We used organic type of air filters and you would work for 30 minutes then took a break outside. Spooky stuff.

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amiya Extra Thin Cement is primarily made from organic solvents such as acetone and butyl acetate, with little to no resin or filler.

Tamiya Extra Thin Cement is a precision adhesive designed for model building, particularly for plastics like polystyrene and ABS. Its main components are organic solvents, specifically acetone and butyl acetate, which dissolve the plastic surfaces to create a strong bond as the solvent evaporates. Unlike regular Tamiya cement, the extra thin version contains no added resin or fillers, making it ultra-thin and ideal for wicking into tight seams and joints.

FineScale Modeler**+1**

So…about 50% extra thin and 50% styrene plus or minus. your milage could vary.

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Expected drying time of Sprue goo? Minutes, hours or overnight?

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Usually minutes, about as fast as the time it takes to surface dry…

full cure in a half to full hour… thing is, it leaves nothing but styrene behind fully welded together… Your two parts become one…

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So fill gaps then putty for a final finish or just scrape smooth and go with it?

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No putty required. That’s the beauty of filling with chips from the sprue. No shrinkage, crumbling or flaking I give my figures a day or two to fully sure, and file them down. See photo above of ecxess on shoulder. It smooths right out. Takes minutes about a minute to fill the gaps.

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ā€˜Don’t go huffing MEK or Ethyl Acetate m’kay. That’ll get you really high.’

And they say our hobby is harmless.

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All those you mentioned are totally gonna screw your nervous system, your brain and your reproductive system. I know cause that’s what caused my medical retirement..

An no the company didn’t give me the proper equipment but they had amazing lawyers..

So be careful.

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Solvents also dissolve fats, fats insulate the nervous system (keeps electric signals inside the ā€œconduitsā€), nervous system (brain included) with damaged ā€œinsulationā€ starts malfunctioning.

Many professional painters suffered the consequences from using solvent based paints.
There is a difference between 8 hours per day, 5 days per week and the very random use of small volumes in our hobby.
I will die from old age, maybe with age induced dementia, before the solvent fumes catch up with me.
Good ventilation is still a very good idea.
Any risk that can be eliminated is worth eliminating.

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That sucks.

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In the beginning of 2015 I was suffering from a form of chemical depression, nerve issues, shin problems had about 15 mini strokes a couple of walking heart attacks and a form of chemically induced dementia / Alzheimer’s after the brain scans and all the blood work the docs saw where it came from our version of OSHA got involved but because of the company being American owned etc they refused to take it to the limit and that was that and I was medically retired. And put on permanent disability. Yet the problems continue and they’re getting worse. That’s the way the cookie crumbles I should have stayed in the field and out of the factory. At least in the field death comes quick in the factory is lingers forever.. only saving grace is the knowledge that what I was working on and helping develop is actually saving lives .

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Man, what a sad story.

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Some will call it Karma pronounced ha ha ha, me I just deal with it as it comes.

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I don’t know where you live; but, MEK is readily available and sold in hardware stores everywhere in the U.S.

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A major drawback with sprue goo is that the melted styrene never completely degasses and doesn’t ever re-harden to its original state. If you intend to make weld lines or fill gaps, Magic-Sculpt or Aves Apoxie Sculpt are better alternatives. Both dry rock hard and are easier to work with than Milliput.

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I have gone almost completely away from any solvent-based fillers. They invariably shrink and you get depressions compared to the surroundings when sanding.

I use superglue by itself or mixed with Lang ā€œJetā€ acrylic powder (see this) for nearly all small to medium filling.

KL

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That’s a sound plan for doing it there and then, makes sense doing it like that :+1:

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Home Depot doesn’t sell it, they sell an MEK substitute usually Ethyl Acetate….

The only one I can find that still sells MEK is Grainger Industrial supply and they won’t sell it to the general public, you have to have a commercial purpose to buy it…

When you click on the link for Grainger’s MEK check the restrictions listing on the right of the page…

METHYL ETHYL KETONE | CAMEO Chemicals | NOAA .

Way too dangerous for use as simple model cement when Acetone and Ethyl Acetate is available….

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Menards sells it in quart and I believe half gallon containers and some local paint stores have it as well. This is in the Midwest of the USA

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Yep, some places still sell it… Used to be my go-to for Styrene…

I guess I’m getting soft in my old age, but my experience is acetone works just as well and is a lot less dangerous.. (and cheaper)

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