doctorwayne's Get off yer duff Challenge (Part I)

[railandsail]

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As I learned with the Seaboard boxcar in Part III of my Challenge, even repeated applications of Solvaset will not settle the rivet decals well and I had several instances where entire strips of rivets would fall off, even with careful handling.  Once all the rivets seemed to at least be staying in place (but with upturned edges and lots of silvering and bubbles, both indications of poor adhesion), I very carefully applied MEK to each river strip and tread plate decal.  This requires a light and rapid pass, using a fairly small brush to avoid carrying too much solvent at one time.  Where areas are missed on the first pass, go back a few minutes later to apply more, so that there's no excess accumulation of it:  if the area remains wet for more than a few seconds, the individual rivets (tiny blobs of resin) will separate from the decal film.  I purposely applied the rivet decals on unpainted styrene, most of it not at all glossy due to sanding.  While such a surface does encourage silvering (trapped air), the bare styrene seems to react, along with the decal film, to create a much better bond.  I'm tempted to say that the rivet decals are cemented in place.


Wayne

A question about the MEK adhesive & its cure time?
Is there a brand of MEK that you use?
Is that the same sort of adhesive that Tenax-7r use to be?

In a lengthy discussion on another forum the very adhesives were cited, particularly replacements for Tenax-7R. I recall using this adhesive quite a bit when I first re-entered the hobby,...upon high recommendations by a number of experienced persons. Its set up time was VERY quick and it flowed into the small spaces just great.

Someone recommended I give Ambroid Pro-Weld a try. I did but I found that it did NOT have as fast a set up time.

More recently that discussion on MRH brought up these points,..if I recall properly. That MEK was very haphazardly to our health, and they made a convincing case that we should use Ethyl Acetate. I perhaqsed a can, and had occasion to use it on some small spot welds recently. So far my observations are that it acts more like the Pro-Weld product rather than the Tenax product, in that it does not set up near as fast.

When I read your observation above I got the impression that you needed a product that set up very quickly? What particular product did you use??