May I ask a question about adhesives here, please?

[Sarah Winfield]

I have a variety of adhesives including "super-glue", contact adhesive and I recently bought some new 2 part epoxy glue similar to that well known brand.

The beauty about 2-part epoxy glue is that it dries hard unlike, I have found contact adhesive, which always seem to be tacky.

Does any member, please, know of a one-part epoxy type glue instead of the usual two part?

It is for gluing sleepers to rail where they have become detached.

Thank you.

Sarah Winfield.

 

[David1226]

I have a variety of adhesives including "super-glue", contact adhesive and I recently bought some new 2 part epoxy glue similar to that well known brand.

The beauty about 2-part epoxy glue is that it dries hard unlike, I have found contact adhesive, which always seem to be tacky.

Does any member, please, know of a one-part epoxy type glue instead of the usual two part?

It is for gluing sleepers to rail where they have become detached.

Thank you.

Sarah Winfield.

I was going to paste a response but I don't want to gum up the works. I guess I should stick to the point in order to glue this topic together.

David

 

[Neil Robinson]

I have fairly recently discovered this product.
http://www.loctite-consumer.co.uk/en/products/superglue-powerflex.html
In my experience it is far more effective in gluing LGB plastics than any other adhesive I've previously tried.

 

[Sarah Winfield]

Thanks Neil it looks like a useful product.

With the epoxy I can pile it up on each side of the rail so it acts like a chair and secures that to the sleeper.

If you can imagine what I am trying to do, do you think that the Super Glue Power Flex would be suitable please?

Thanks,

Sarah Winfield

 

[Rhinochugger]

I have a variety of adhesives including "super-glue", contact adhesive and I recently bought some new 2 part epoxy glue similar to that well known brand.

The beauty about 2-part epoxy glue is that it dries hard unlike, I have found contact adhesive, which always seem to be tacky.

Does any member, please, know of a one-part epoxy type glue instead of the usual two part?

It is for gluing sleepers to rail where they have become detached.

Thank you.

Sarah Winfield.

I don't think there is a one-part epoxy, Sarah - it needs the two parts to form the chemical reaction.

If you want to build up a little bit, have you thought of silicone mastic? You can play with that, wipe up the surplus, then leave it to go off for a while and Bob's yer uncle.

Needs to be an external mastic and definitely silicone, none of this acrylic rubbish

You can get brown or clear (plus a few other colours that you're probably not interested in)

 

[daveyb]

CT1 is a brilliant mastic,,, i imagine the gorilla mastic is good too,,,,

 

[Neil Robinson]

Thanks Neil it looks like a useful product.

With the epoxy I can pile it up on each side of the rail so it acts like a chair and secures that to the sleeper.

If you can imagine what I am trying to do, do you think that the Super Glue Power Flex would be suitable please?

Thanks,

Sarah Winfield

In short no.
It is a thin film adhesive.
If you need a build up of adhesive I suggest you experiment with an "epoxy putty".
Often available in small pre-measured pieces contaning both halves that you mix just prior to use.

 

[maxi-model]

Because of the minimal contact area and the exterior use I doubt there is any adhesive or two pack putty that can mechanically do the job with any reliability. Your best bet, apart from replacing the entire sleeper web or relying on the remaining sleeper chairs on the web doing the job, would be to drill and tap the rail from the underside and use a metal plate inserted into the underside of the sleeper and secure with a machine screw, to the same thread as you have tapped into the rail. Bit complicated, you will need the right drill and tap combination for the machine screw size chosen and some brass strip to use for the backing. It's probably easier and cheaper to buy a new track section or sleeper web. Max

 

[BakerJohn]

Sarah,
If you want a cleaner alternative, I've been using very small screws to reconnect the rail where the tie plates have broken on my sleepers (almost all of my track is second hand, so there's some repairs to be done!). If you're interested in going that route, let me know! I'll get the information together and snap a photo or two for you!

 

[Gavin Sowry]

Get a bit of metal, half the width of a sleeper, and twice as long as the 'hole' in the sleeper under the rail.
Turn rail and sleeper base upside down, place metal piece over hole, and solder to underside of rail.

 

[dunnyrail]

Because of the minimal contact area and the exterior use I doubt there is any adhesive or two pack putty that can mechanically do the job with any reliability. Your best bet, apart from replacing the entire sleeper web or relying on the remaining sleeper chairs on the web doing the job, would be to drill and tap the rail from the underside and use a metal plate inserted into the underside of the sleeper and secure with a machine screw, to the same thread as you have tapped into the rail. Bit complicated, you will need the right drill and tap combination for the machine screw size chosen and some brass strip to use for the backing. It's probably easier and cheaper to buy a new track section or sleeper web. Max

Get a bit of metal, half the width of a sleeper, and twice as long as the 'hole' in the sleeper under the rail.
Turn rail and sleeper base upside down, place metal piece over hole, and solder to underside of rail.

A slightly simpler solution to these is to indeed drill the sleeper only with a small dril and insert a small U of suitable wire (copper mains earth wire stripped is about right) nip the overhang to secure the rail to the sleeper.

 

[JimmyB]

I have to ask, do you really need to fix it, if you are going for a accurate scale, you may need everything perfect, but does every sleeper have to be fixed, the very nature of a lot of narrow gauge railways is the "ramshackleness" of them

 

[BakerJohn]

I have to ask, do you really need to fix it, if you are going for a accurate scale, you may need everything perfect, but does every sleeper have to be fixed, the very nature of a lot of narrow gauge railways is the "ramshackleness" of them

Thats a good point, Jimmy. I suppose it depends on what sleeper it is. Ive been careful to make sure that the sleepers on every end of a point is secured because otherwise there's too much movement, especially since I'm using Tenmille throws.

 

[Tanker man]

Sarah
Have you tried a product called 'Milliput' it's a two part putty that you mix together, it's yellow and blue and when it is completely green it is ready to use. It dries rock hard, you can drill, sand or saw it. I have used it for many repairs and model making, I even repaired the plastic shaft of a pair of my wife's nail scissors, many years ago and they are still as good, useful stuff, Hobbycraft sell it
Dave

 

[Zerogee]

Sorry to by picky, Dave, but the blue and yellow stuff isn't Milliput - it's generally known as "Greenstuff", for the fairly obvious reason that it is, as you say, green when uniformly mixed.
Milliput is also an epoxy putty, but comes in grey and yellowish sticks, or in colour variations for other grades (there is a "silver-grey" ultrafine grade).

"Greenstuff" was originally a plumber's putty, but was discovered by modellers and especially figure sculptors a long while ago and is one of the favourite modelling materials for a lot of the very best model figure designers.

Jon.

 

[Tanker man]

I stand corrected, one piece comes in a blue plastic bag, I think that is what I was thinking of! I do use 'green stuff'as well!.......... It's an age thing, I think!!!?........that's my excuse!,,,,,,,, but the product ( what ever colour!) is good
Dave

 

[David1226]

I stand corrected, one piece comes in a blue plastic bag, I think that is what I was thinking of! I do use 'green stuff'as well!.......... It's an age thing, I think!!!?........that's my excuse!,,,,,,,, but the product ( what ever colour!) is good
Dave

No Dave, it's what comes from snorting the stuff while you are mixing it.

David

 

[Zerogee]

I stand corrected, one piece comes in a blue plastic bag, I think that is what I was thinking of! I do use 'green stuff'as well!.......... It's an age thing, I think!!!?........that's my excuse!,,,,,,,, but the product ( what ever colour!) is good
Dave

Yes, you're quite right, one of the sticks of standard Milliput does come in a blue-tinted bag IIRC.....
Both have their (slightly different) uses, one advantage of Greenstuff being that even when fully cured, it retains just a little bit of flexibility - which means that when used to sculpt master figures they are easier to remove from the mould intect - as they flex very slightly where hardened Milliput would be more likely to fracture.
Milliput is better for hard-line work (mechanical stuff as opposed to organic figures) because you can, as you mentioned, saw, sand and drill it once cured.

Even though I now use a CAD designer and 3D print for masters of the techy bits (weapons, vehicles etc), I still use a traditional figure sculptor working in greenstuff to do all the figures - a 3D print of a bike or heavy weapon with a traditionally-sculpted rider or crew is still, to my mind, the best of both worlds.

Jon.

 

[maxi-model]

Milliputt comes in several grades .............



Could not resist, I've just finished repairing a Woodlan Scenics figure with it

 

[Bill Barnwell]

I have a variety of adhesives including "super-glue", contact adhesive and I recently bought some new 2 part epoxy glue similar to that well known brand.

The beauty about 2-part epoxy glue is that it dries hard unlike, I have found contact adhesive, which always seem to be tacky.

Does any member, please, know of a one-part epoxy type glue instead of the usual two part?

It is for gluing sleepers to rail where they have become detached.

Thank you.

Sarah Winfield.

Sarah, nothing sticks to LGB sleeper/ties, with that being said the pictures show how I repair mine using 2/56" brass or stainless screws drilling metered hole, taping and installing screw, sometimes using a small piece of brass strip to carryover to the offending part real easy fix and usually it's just 1 hole from the bottom up threw the plastic strip that holds the ties together and into the center of the rail. Better than brand new, Bill