Tenax

Tenax 7R is a totally different type of adhesive. Its main use is for assembling parts with seams, such as fuselage halves, upper to lower wings,etc. You apply small amounts on the outside of the seam, capillary action will spread it down the seam an inch or so. You apply gentle pressure on the join and the Tenax, which has partially melted the plastic, will fuse the pieces together and raise a small bead of melted plastic. You work your way down the seam and when all is done & cured you can sand the melted bead off and Voila, no seam to fill. It's not useable as a regular glue for attaching small parts like cockpit details, and it cannot be used on resin or PE, just won't work. It's a limited use adhesive, but it does its intended job very well.

QUOTE: Originally posted by rjkplasticmod It's a limited use adhesive, but it does its intended job very well.

Rick nailed it very well. I've only been using it a couple of months and I honestly don't know how I did without it. It has no real comparison to the Testors tube glue other than both of them are styrene solvents. They both bond by slightly melting the plastic, but wheras the Testors glue takes several minutes to bond and dry Tenax will do it in about a minute. Plus you don't spread it on the parts and then put them together, you put the parts together, take as long as you want to align them like you want, and apply Tenax to the seam and capillary action will pull it right into the joint. And like Rick said, a little plastic will ooze out and when it's dry just sand it off and no seam left. The stuff is great

I've been wondering this same question, thanks for the opinions. I've got to restock my glues when I get home, so I think I'll add a bottle of Tenax to the list and give it a go on the big assemblies, and stick with my trusty testors and CA for the rest.

QUOTE: Originally posted by LemonJello I've been wondering this same question, thanks for the opinions. I've got to restock my glues when I get home, so I think I'll add a bottle of Tenax to the list and give it a go on the big assemblies, and stick with my trusty testors and CA for the rest.

Give it a try and I think you'll like it. I primarily used CA before and now I'm getting away from it some. Tenax won't do everything, but when it works it seems to work very well.

Does the same ie, Tenax VS Ambroid?? Whats better?
Ive got that Ambroid, it seem good. And they have a brush too. And Tenax dont have that..

None of you take this the wrong way. Okay?
Have you all been living under a rock? I was turned onto Tenax about 10 years ago and immediately fell in love!
I have agree with Rick and Scott. But, for what it is intended for, it is great stuff!!

Randie

Well....I guess im gonna try it then!

My first experience with it was when PL issued the LIS Robot and they "required" it because of the type plastic used. I fell in Love with it and began to use it for most kits.

A word of warning thought. Be sure to re-seal the bottle when not in use. I forgot to one night and when I got up the next morning, the bottle that had been 3/4 full the night before was bone dry.

Don

Interesting, I use Tenax for everything on a plastic model. It works great for small parts. I use one of those little plastic throw away brushes and I've never had any problems.

OK... just picked some up at the LHS and was wondering what most of you use to apply it with?? To get it to travel along the seam and not along the outside edge, I imagine it'd need to be something very thin?

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jeeves OK... just picked some up at the LHS and was wondering what most of you use to apply it with?? To get it to travel along the seam and not along the outside edge, I imagine it'd need to be something very thin?

There is a device called a "Touch-N-Flow" applicator that seems to be one of the preferred ways of applying it. I have an old hypodermic needle that I cut the tip off of and Zapped to a short piece of plastic tubing that works very well. Basically any type of very thin tube will work fine I think. I just dip mine in the Tenax and a little bit will flow up the tube. Touch it to the joint and capilary action pulls it out of the tube and along the joint.

Sorry I didn't mention the applicator beforehand, I just didn't think of it.

Jeeves.
I use an old, fine point, paint brush.
I tried the applicator route and couldn't ever get it to work right. It was probably just me though. I ended up chucking the applicator out the window.

Randie

Hey guys;
I've usd Ambroid for everything except PE and resin. Granted I've only been at this for a little over a year but, it really is nice to use.
Steve

to apply tenax take a piece of solid copper wire and pound the heck out of it on a hard metal surface until it is very thin. file off any rough edges. now put that thin copper between the seams. put a small drop of tenax on the copper and run it down the seam.it works well for me. warren

QUOTE: to apply tenax take a piece of solid copper wire and pound the heck out of it on a hard metal surface until it is very thin

That's a good idea. I've never tried it, but it should work great.

BTW, welcome to the forum! Glad to have you here.

I use both Tenax and Ambroid, and I really don't see a lot of difference between them. Maybe Tenax is a touch more aggressive.

I stumbled on an applicator that really works well. It's called a ruling pen and is used by draftsmen to draft different thicknesses of lines. I got mine from an old compass set I had in drafting class. It works GREAT! Here is a picture of one: http://www.reuels.com/reuels/product20516.html

I use Tenax for jobs like Rick described - cementing long joints like wing halves or the fuselage halves. Just dip the pen in the Tenax like you would in an ink bottle, touch the tip of the pen to the joint, and capillary action between the halves sucks out the perfect amount of cement. It's almost like magic. You can adjust the amount of Tenax you get by turning a little knurled knob on the pen to spread the split sides.

You can also narrow down the pen opening and put tiny drops in mounting holes, etc. The only thing you don't want to do is leave the sides of the pen spread far apart to hold lots of cement when you really only want a tiny drop. How wide you spread the pen halves is pretty much self evident after you have used it once or twice.

Just give me my ruling pen and a bottle of Tenax and I'll make seams that take about 1/3 the amount of cleanup that I used to have using a brush, toothpick, etc. Just a caution - I turned a little brass holder for the pen on my lathe. If the pen comes with a plastic handle, I wouldn't dip the plastic in the cement. Actually, I used an alligator clip to hold the pen until I got ambitious enough to turn the holder.

A drafting pen does work well but the problem with them is that you need to leave the Tenax bottle open which causes it to evaporate faster.
I love the Touch-N-Flow myself and I use the drafting pen for Zap CA.

Mike

another good trick for Tenax & Ambroid on seams is to put a single edge (safety type)
razor between the halves.
then put the Tenax on the blade just outside of the seam.
the glue will wick in.
then squeeze the halves together gently and pull out the blade.
work great on 1/48 airplane wings.