Greg,

The Barge works well on larger Delrin parts (i.e. Kadee roofwalks),
but it is tough to use on the smaller parts. Reason being, even on the
tip of a pin the minimum amount of Barge you can "pick up" for use is
excessive for small part application. I use Cool Cem to attach all
engineered plastic parts and no longer consider them a problem when
super detailing a kit.

Paul Lyons
Laguna Niguel, CA

-----Original Message-----
From: tgregmrtn@...
To: STMFC@...
Sent: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 9:23 am
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Resin kits and Barge Cement

Doc,

Have you ever tried this special "Brew" to hold Delrin types of
plastic with any success? I use regular contact cement with SOME
success but would welcome an alternative...

inquiring minds would like to know...

Greg Martin

-----Original Message-----
From: Denny Anspach <danspach@...>
To: STMFC@...
Sent: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 7:12 am
Subject: [STMFC] Resin kits and Barge Cement

As at least some of you are familiar, I have been somewhat of an
enthusiast of Barge Cement for some years, and I continue to continue
to consider it as one of my most valued bench "tools" for selective
modeling purposes. It is a very tough and resilient
relatively-slow-setting contact cement originally developed many
decades ago for the shoe repair industry that incidentally can be
applied in extremely tiny amounts without undue "stringiness". From
being originally hard to find, it can now be purchased as standard
stock in most (all?) Ace hardware stores (I just purchased a fresh
tube here in rural Iowa).

Like other contact cements, the un-evaporated volatile solvent that
keeps the glue liquid ready for application can attack substrates of
styrene and resin, and painted surfaces- a significant issue only if
over some elapsed time relatively large amounts of solvent are
allowed to remain, or be trapped in surface contact- such as when
parts are joined prematurely before the solvent has sufficiently
"wicked off" (a stage also known as "full contact mode", usually
within ten minutes). In conditions where parts are relatively thick
and the amounts of glue are small, this simply is not a significant
issue [period].

With these things in mind, and still using ACC as my primary cement,
I increasingly use Barge cement as a now-essential-to-me adjunct to
ACC in assembling resin kits, where too often one's natural range of
"unsteady" hand movement exceeds the size of the parts, or the
precision of placement. The bare bones advantage is that its
inherent gap-filling "stickiness" right out of the tube, and its slow
set up (ten minutes to full contact mode, longer if not using contact
features) allows one to position tiny parts and they will then stay
put but still moveable while you can then address your efforts to
moving them precisely into the ideal position. After they are in
position, and the glue has set up sufficiently that the parts will no
longer easily move (about ten minutes or so), I then will often apply
ACC to "set" the same joint so that I can quickly handle the model
again and move on to other things.

I also now use Barge cement in the assembly of "flat" house car kits,
especially when the roof fit is such that the joint is very difficult
to reach with ACC without excessive "flow". I also use the cement,
always in full contact mode (or GOO in past years) to fasten weights
to the floors (typographic lead alloy slugs). These glues never fail
in this chore. Although there has been much talk about the "fumes"
trapped from any remaining un-evaporated solvents within an assembled
model eventually causing unspecified damage, I have yet to personally
witness this actually happening (nor seen any relevant data).
Nevertheless, not looking for trouble :-) , I do not button up any
house car until the parts to be joined pass a demanding "sniff test"
that will detect any significant amount of remaining fumes.

The secret to delivering the tiny drops of this contact cement lies
in drilling a tiny hole through the pointed crown of the tube cap,
just large enough to accommodate a pin or wire to use as a stopper-
usually in the range of .040-.060". I commonly use a T-shaped
specimen pin. The crown of the cap, perfect for delivering the glue
into close spaces is however surrounded by a plastic rim. Take a set
of small side cutters and remove the rim- and you are ready to go.

The shelf life of an opened tube that has had care taken to keep it
"stoppered" is about two years. Keeping it in the freezer would
undoubtedly improve this record.

Like with all cements, misuse or careless use can cause damage, and
Barge is not perfect for all occasions. There is also a learning
curve. Nevertheless, I am comfortable, if not actually enthusiastic,
advising those who ask, to add this good product to their routine
hobby armamentarium and learn how to use it. I have now firmly
retired GOO, after using it since about 1950.

Denny

--
Denny S. Anspach, MD
Sacramento

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