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So in a accident I tipped over my bottle of plastic cement. It penetrated through the cardboard box I was working on my models in and spilled through on some (relatively unimportant) papers.

 

I observe that it seems to not react when in contact with things such as cardboard or paper. Is this true? I cleaned it up by soaking it up with paper towels. Is specific ways to dispose of it, as it might be considered toxic/chemical waste?

 

Sad that almost a full bottle was wasted, two weeks in my first actual model (others before were snap-together kits/diecast/screw-together kits )

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Been there.  Done that.  Bought the T-shirt.  I never tipped a bottle of liquid cement over, but I have forgotten to put the cap back on a brand new bottle of Tenax.  When I went to my work bench the following day, that's when I discovered that literally half the glue had evaporated.   I don't know that I can speak in an educated way about the toxicity of the soaked paper towels, but I can only imagine that you really don't have a lot to worry about.  I think most of it will evaporate in pretty short order.

 

(On a side note, if you ever spill some liquid glue on a model, don't try to wipe it off or sop it up with a towel or anything like that.  Just let it stay and it will evaporate in a few moments.  As Dave mentioned above, liquid cement is meant to melt plastic, not paper.  If you try to wipe it up, it'll mar the plastic and you'll have a bit of cosmetic fixing-up to deal with.)

Edited by echolmberg
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The terms cement and glue are something of a misnomer when it comes to the liquid solvents we use on plastic models.  Products like Tenax, Tamiya Extra Thin, and Testors liquid cement are solvents only that bond styrene by reacting to it and dissolving the parts where they contact each other.  There is no adhesive, or sticky property in any of these liquids.  Which is why you can literally put it on your fingers and not glue them together.  The stuff just evaporates off any surface other than styrene.  Mop it up and throw it away. 

 

Rick L.

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As mentioned above, spilled liquid poly usually won't affect much other than the plastic which it's designed to be used on...

....although if mopped/wiped up when spilled onto a cutting mat, it will remove/smear grid and guide lines, surface dots, etc...

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I would be a bit careful with paper towels that had liquid cement on them, as it is flammable.  Once it evaporated, I agree with the others: I think you can just toss it.

 

Stacey

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2 hours ago, Charlie D. said:

Did you know that testors liquid cement will melt carpet? Man did I get a whooping for that as a kid when I spilled a whole bottle on the family room carpet! 😝

 

That must have hurt. I am working on a essentially plastic covered table and floor, so I guess the papers and cardboard box saved me.

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1 hour ago, Bomber101 said:

 

That must have hurt. I am working on a essentially plastic covered table and floor, so I guess the papers and cardboard box saved me.

It smelled like cement for at least a week, and the melted spot was there until I moved out to go to college! Needless to say mom and dad weren’t too happy and I was forbidden from building models on the floor after that! 

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I just knocked over a bottle of microset the other night. Boy, did I grab some paper towels real fast.

I think knocking over bottles of "_____" is part of a modelers initiation if you ask me.

It's not a matter of if, but when!!!

 

Tim

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Every like two or three bottles of Micro Set I have to tip one over losing at least 1/3 of the contents. I suppose that is the law. Never tipped a Micro Sol bottle. Ever.

For a few years I do my modelling on a cutting mat. I don't have a dedicated workbench, so a table or kitchen island is my bench when family sleeps. I owned an A4 mat. Never had a glue accident. I decided I need a bigger mat - so I got an A3 sized one. A month after I bought it I tipped a new bottle of medium density CA. It flowed right under the mat. Apparently it took me like an eternity to just put up the glue tube and put it in a model box i kept near the mat. Then I went on to quickly pick up the mat, so it will not get stuck to the kitchen island table top. Nope. Too slow. The glue has set. It took me 3 hours with debonder to clean this to a point where I had only a tiniest (like 0,4 by 0,4 mm) piece still stuck to the table top. It was 5 or 5:30 a.m. It was just coming off. And yes. I did make a hole in a laminated table top.

What I did learn (apart from all the other stuff about rushing things at 5 a.m. in the morning) is that superglue heats up insanelly when touching paper towel. At some point I was afraid it might catch on fire.

My name is Thadeus, I'm a glue spiller.

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