The Ship Model Forum

The topic of the thread though is assessing the usefulness of Bondic. If I were to blue plastic to plastic obviously I'd use some kind of polystyrene cement. I'm just trying to gauge its properties as a bonding agent.

Dichloromethane is actually very good for polystyrene-polystyrene, polystyrene-acrylic and acrylic-acrylic bonds … can be applied with a small brush, but joints have to be perfect as it does not add material, just dissolves the plastics and welds them together ...

Polystyrene. Bondic performed poorly on this surface as well as PE surfaces. As a test, I washed a piece of polystyrene. I applied a large tear of Bondic to it and cured it. It popped off easily. Doesn't even come close to the properties and performance of epoxy. Behaves closer to what you might expect from a hot glue gun, but much harder.

What do you mean by 'plastic' ? There are many different plastics, with different properties. The stuff being plain acrylic monomer should hold very well to acrylic glass (Plexiglas, Perspex, etc.).

The bonding to metal will strongly depend on the thoroughness of degreasing and de-oxidising.

I could see airplane guys using it for canopies. It doesn't have the miniscus to stretch across a span though.
As far as I can see, it's most useful for filling and building up mass. Rigging is definitely something to examine. the smallest amount, applied very smoothly and invisibly will grip a line instantly once you UV it. That's nice!

Sounds like it would also be useful for clear parts, such as window glazing?

Posted my thoughts just above your comment.

Where did you get it, Canadian Tire? Eagerly awaiting your results. Could be a very versatile tool!

Okay,
So I bought Bondic and tried a number of tests comparing it to CA

Photo Etch to photo etch:
(edge glued to a flat piece of PE)
CA performed significantly better. The Bondic weld was weak and didn't adhere well to the flat piece. CA wins

(Flat to flat)
The UV light can't get to the Bondic that is deeper under the flat piece. It bonds along the edges though.
The bond is weak and far inferior to CA. CA wins

Photo Etch to plastic (polystyrene):
(PE edge to flat plastic)
Bondic is marginally better, but still nowhere close to the grip and strength of CA. Bondic is neat and elegant to use, but the strength just isn't there.
CA wins again

Plastic to plastic: (polystyrene)
(thick edge to flat piece)
No contest. CA wins hands down. The Bondic bond is weak. It's a joy to use, but just doesn't hold well.

As a filler:
Here is where bondic shines. You can fill a large gap with it, wipe the excess, get it right, then instantly harden it into a solid. This is a unique property that will be useful in certain situations.
It's rock hard, clear, and doesn't shrink.

For rigging:
A very tiny amount of bondic applied smoothly will grip a rigging line and hold it in place instantly once the UV light is applied. This is a nice feature and could be quite useful for rigging.

So there you go. Not the dream model material I was hoping for, but I REALLY like the gap filling properties and instant cure. It isn't ever going to compete with CA though for fine PE work.

I have other traditions (at least I think that's the point you were making) like glue blobs, endless scraping of glue blobs, one end of a piece coming detached whilst I try to attach the other end, glued parts shifting in the night, separating glued joints due to my innate clumsiness, and other things that that make me curse and groan leading others to believe that I don't really like building model ships.

Like that guy said in the movie War Games: "I'd piss on a sparkplug if I thought it would help." ...Or something like that.

I can see myself using heaps of it...instead of counting to 40 every time I join two pieces together.

In tooth repair UV-curing acrylics (which is what it is) have been used for a long time and more recently nail 'artists' turned to them too. A clever idea, if the light can reach to it. Some cements for acrylics, such as Acryfix by the manufacturers of Plexiglas (now Evonik Industries, formerly Röhm & Haas GmbH), are also UV-sensitive.

I found, however, that the product called 'Bondic' already cures in the tube after a while. I didn't get much use out of it

Just bought some bondic. Going to try it tomorrow and will post a full set of tests and pictures.
Stay tuned. Also just found out from an angry wife that it was already in my gifts for Christmas. If it's as good as it looks, I'll need refills anyways lol

No. This is all wrong. Have you all forgotten where you came from?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRdfX7ut8gw

Holy cow! That stuff looks like a model builder's dream. Heck, wet dream even. Can you imagine what this will do for railing and fine detail? Rigging??

Uh, oh... Googling "buy Bondic Australia" yields various non-Bondic results plus some Loctite stuff that doesn't appear to come with a UV light.

Looks like I'll be suffering through some shipping and handling charges...crap. Just paid 42 bucks to ship 1kg (2.2lbs) of Christmas pressies to my folks in Alaska.

Gotta have it.

No child will ever have to suffer from hours of taunting and teasing by schoolmates because his glasses are held together by a broad band of white tape.

Well, you could take the sun for 20 minutes or you take something like that for a few seconds

Say, the sun?

I've tried the stuff several times and it works well. The stuff is hardening under UV Light and that is the only downside of the kit: the UV light is a bit small.
However, I use another UV source which is covering a bigger area.
If you use the stuff, try to smooth as much BEFORE you use the UV Light. After applying the light, the stuff is rock solid and similar to filling with CA, it's much harder than the plastic surrounding. So the less you have to file after the hardening, the better....
The material is not on the greasy side such like the UV Filler from Tamiya.

There's a video on Youtube of a dude repairing a metal fan blade! What???? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAX24Uzj2F0
Wow

Huh, very interesting. I would not mind testing that out for modeling.