Sanding CA

[Guest]

Hello

After many hours of trying to get one wing attached to the fuselage of my 1/48 Tamiya Pfeil, I resorted to using CA to bond the two together.

I do not like CA as it is results in a hard bead that is diificult to remove.Sure enough I have such a bead. The problem is further compounded by the fact that the joint is right up against the fuselage so is hard to access.

Does anyone have any good tips on how to sand this CA bead down? As I say above it's rock hard. What can I use for the job please?

Thanks and regards

Aidan

[Guest]

if you have one, you could try a dremel with a pointed head to sand it down. I don't have one, but i've seen others on the internet (videos mostly) use it to weather models. It's basically a handheld drill with a wide variety of interchangeable heads. You might be able to get just the bead down if you can get a small enough head.

But again, this will only work if you have a dremel tool. I never used CA, so i can't say for sure. Just trying to throw something out there.

[Guest]

Thanks for that Jim - am grateful for the suggestion. I have the UK equivalent to a Dremel (Black and Decker Wixard) but would not dare risk it - the lowest speed is still pretty fierce and I don't have a small enough head to use. Anything head I do have would, knowing my luck, gouge into the plastic - but thanks again for replying Jim.

Regards

Aidan

[stona]

If the CA has fully hardened you are going to struggle to sand it down as it will be harder than the surrounding plastic. I can only suggest trying to protect the surrounding area with tape,maybe something tough like dymo tape (I always have some as it makes a great guide for scribing), and then trying to get at the bead with a skinny flat file. If you can get the excess off you can always tidy up with a bit of putty and some sanding.

I know that acetone debonds CA so maybe you could see what effect a swab of acetone based nail varnish remover has. I've never tried this and of course you may debond your joint.

This is one of those situations where going at the problem slowly and gently is more likely to work, though it may take a while!

Good luck

Steve

[Gern]

Aidan,

I think you will definitely need some sort of power sander. Perhaps use a small sanding head (you can get sets of these from ebay very cheaply) as well as the Dymo tape Steve suggests to protect the rest of your kit. As Steve says, the CA is MUCH harder than the kit plastic so you'll need to protect it somehow.

Gern

[Guest]

Thanks to all who have replied. I've tried the acetone suggestion. It does not have any effect upon the plastic of the model and does soften the CA to an extent that allows me to gently scrape off the excess CA. So thanks for that Steve.

A hard lesson I had in using CA to glue.

Cheers

AVB