Scratch Building Material Question

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Sun, 2021-03-28 06:46 — Bessemer Bob

Good morning,

I am laying out the next project which is going to require scratch building several mill structures at my steel plant.

I am looking to make a long cast house foundation, foundation for stoves and gas cleaning, and also the forms for the walls and roof over the cast house.

I was thinking 3/4 MDF, but am aware that MDF can have issues with moisture and possible problems related to adhesives when joining styrene siding and roofing material to the MDF itself.

So that poses the next question, glue/adhesives. What do you recommend for attaching styrene to wood or MDF?

* For the steel modelers, Why I plan to use a solid material for the foundations. Unlike the Walthers BF kits I am modeling off of a prototype furnace that had a solid foundation with both slag and iron loading to the side of the cast house and not beneath. The stoves as well need to be hight by 1/2" over the Walthers stove base.

Styrene to wood

Sun, 2021-03-28 07:02 — Rick Sutton

Hi Bob,

For my photo scratch buildings I have found that Devcon Weld It glue works well to attach styrene to 1/4" plywood.

Plywood would be a far stabler base

Sun, 2021-03-28 07:09 — MikeHughes

And lighter.

Or perhaps styrofoam

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Styrene to wood?

Sun, 2021-03-28 08:53 — ctxmf74

I've had styrene warp and buckle from gluing it to wood with Walthers Goo so I'd stay away from that. two part epoxy in tubes works fine but is somewhat a bother to mix and use. Aleenes tacy glue probably would do the job pretty painlessly. Styrene to wood joints can have problems from dis-similar reactions to moisture so I'd really recommend making the core from styrene too. You can buy large sheets at plastic suppliers or might even find some discarded pieces at a local sign company or re-cycle center....DaveB

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Styrene

Sun, 2021-03-28 09:35 — Bessemer Bob

Dave,

What thickness of styrene do you use?

Bob

Think before you post, try to be positive, and you do not always have to give your opinion.....

What thickness of styrene do you use?

Sun, 2021-03-28 10:57 — ctxmf74

Hi Bob, I've used many different thickness depending on the size of the project and what was available at the time. I don't know if they sell it by metric thickness or by thousands now but I've used from say ,020" to 3/16" or so for most products. A local sign shop near me once had a scrap bin full of various types and sizes that they sold cheap so I still have some old stock. I haven't been over there in years so don't know what they have now. I've also used scrap plexiglas acrylic clear sheet material for building cores, it requires a different glue though so I prefer styrene. I am just finishing up the track on my new layout so will switch to buildings soon and will need to update my methods as I have lots of large buildings to construct.It will be interesting to see what materials are currently the most effective from cost and ease of use perspectives....DaveB

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