I am scratch building a ship model and trying to decide if I should attempt to glue plastic to wood. The ship is not being built to museum standards, but I do want this join to be, hopefully, permanent, as the ship will become part of my wife’s ancestral history. I have considered epoxy and super glue, but have read somewhere that epoxy doesn’t hold well to styrene and super glue’s longevity is questionable. Am I wrong in my assumptions? Has anyone had experience with this and are there any other types of glues which would work?
I’d go with the epoxy and if possible maybe us some locating pins or dowel to help with the fit, it should give you a complete grip with no issues. I used to make R/C boats and used epoxy on wood/plastic combinations all the time with no issues- even in the wet environment.
Epoxy is likely a good bet for permanence. Other things that would work as well: contact cement like UHU Por (says its for styrofoam but I use it on wood, metal and plastic) or Gorilla glue. Epoxy will give you some working time to position the part accurately.
Quite a few years ago I built a model of the frigate Hancock, in the “plank-on-hollowed-out-solid” style. It has a carved basswood hull “planked” with styrene strips.
The adhesive I used was good old Revell tube-type cement. The model is now more than thirty years old, and has had to endure at least four changes in residence. None of the planks shows any sign of coming loose.
Revell tube cement isn’t on the market any more, but I think Testor’s or Ambroid plastic cement would work fine. The idea is that the cement softens the surface of the styrene, and soaks into the wood grain.
There’s Gorilla Glue and there’s Gorilla Glue. The original Gorilla Glue is an expanding polyurethane that forms an expanding foam when the gluing surface is dampened with water. I used it to build the bench and cabinets in my workshop, but I wouldn’t allow it anywhere near a model. The same company makes a CA adhesive that seems to work like any other, and a “wood glue” that I haven’t tried yet.
I have frequently glued wood to styrene or vis versa with gel CA (don’t use the runny regular CA). Never had a problem with the result.
I have also used epoxy- works okay, but smellier and takes more work (mixing and stuff).
I believe LePage celluloid cement is still on market. But, yeah, like the others it makes a mess of styrene. And I think I did see Ambroid still at hobby shop.
In response to the question of how long CA lasts - that same thirty-year-old model has a huge number of CA joints in it. So does my HMS Bounty, which has passed its thirty-fifth birthday. All those joints are good as new. And they date from the days when CA was new to the public. (Anybody else remember Aron Alpha?)
Personally, I think the issue of longevity in model-building materials has been blown way out of proportion. There’s one material that I just won’t use in a model for reasons of longevity: lead, which sometimes starts turning to powder within a few weeks.
As for the CA joints, I experimentally found out, that dampening the surfaces to be glued with acetone or lacquer thinner enhances the joint - it dries faster and appears to hold better this way. I suppose contamination of the surfaces to be glued could cause the CA glue joint to loose hold after some time.