Tube Cement

I certainly agree that bottle-type cement is generall preferable to the stuff in the tube.  (Both types fit the definition of "liquid"; if the stuff in the tube wasn't a liquid, you wouldn't be able to get it out of the tube.)  But I don't agree that the bottled variety is always better.

There are plenty of situations when it's highly desirable to be able to put a small amount of adhesive in a particular spot and stick another piece there a minute or two later.  It's also frequently desirable to be able too move the assembled pieces around a bit while the glue's setting.  And the high viscosity of the tube-type stuff sometimes is an advantage; it doesn't flow and dribble like the bottle variety does.

All these factors are particularly important in ship modeling - the type I personally do most.  For example, the planking on my little model of the Continental frigate Hancock ( http://www.hmsvictoryscalemodels.be/JohnTilleyHancock/index.html ) is made of Evergreen styrene strips glued to a carved basswood hull.  I used Revell "Type S" tube cement for that job; I don't think bottle-type cement would have worked.  (I built that model almost thirty years ago, by the way - and the planks show no sign of coming loose.)

I've never been a big fan of Testor's tube glue.  Sometime in the late seventies there was a big campaign to stomp out glue sniffing; Testor's responded by adding something called "oil of mustard" to its glue formula, in the hope that the mustard-like smell would drive kids away from it.  (I was working in a hobby shop at the time; I suspected that the little punks who were buying the stuff to sniff weren't the least bit deterred.)  The oil of mustard seemed to increase the viscosity and "stringiness," to the point that I quit using it.  My old favorite tube-type plastic cements were Revell and Ambroid, neither of which seems to be available any more.

I do at least 75% of my plastic-to-plastic joints with bottle-type cement.  But for those instances where the tube type works better (and there are plenty of them in the sort of stuff I work with), I keep a tube of orange Testor's handy.  One trick for using it:  you can dilute it with Testor's bottle-type, and get just about whatever viscosity suits the particular application best.

Thanks everyone for the thread and the responses, I wasn't aware that tube glue could separate, given enough time.

I'm with Ron, though, I use both liquid and tube, depending on the application, and I'm not quite ready to toss the tubes in the trash quite yet.  But I have gotten pretty good at keeping stringing to an absolute minimum.

Thanks Hawkeye, I did not know that about the tube cement but started suspecting something. I do use liquid cement for many applications, but there are some areas where the tube cement is much better mostly due to control of the glue. Especially when placing scatchbuilt chocks on the decks of ships.

  Ron W.

Tube glue can separate in the tube, you might need to make sure the cap is on tight and knead the tube a bit to resuspend the solvent back into the goo of the glue.

Toss it in the trash and use liquid cement, far superior performance and you don't have to deal with those glue strings.  Glues adhere to pieces together, solvents weld them together. Once you make the switch you'll never look back!

Thanks Phil. I am using the toxic stuff, love the smell of glue in the morning, and it is on bare plastic. It just seems that sometimes it holds and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, there doesn't appear to be any of the "welding" action that should be there. Putty doesn't by any chance dissolve it,does it?

If it's still liquid in the tube, it should be ok.

BUT: IS it the Red label Testors or the Blue "non-toxic" version, as I believe the blue is less effective. Also, are you glueing bare styrene or painted parts, as the glue will be far less effective on pre-painted parts (unless you scrape the paint away).