Substitute for plastic cement? - Model Railroader Magazine

The lacquer thinner which I use seems to vary in make-up depending on the manufacturer, but they all seem to work in the same manner, both as thinners/cleaners and as cement for styrene.  One which I have on-hand contains Toluene, Methyl Alcohol, and Methyl Ethyl Ketone, while the other consists of Methyl Alcohol, Acetone, and Toluene.

I buy it by the gallon and usually run though a gallon or two a year.  In addition to being an excellent solvent cement for styrene and some other plastics, it's useful for thinning lacquer-based paints such as Floquil, Scalecoat, SMP's Accupaint, Testors ModelMasters, as well as Dull- and Glosscote, Pactra and Humbrol and probably others.  It's good for cleaning brushes and airbrushes, regardless of what type of paint you use, and for stripping most paints from metals, too.  I also use it for thinning and cleaning-up contact cement, and it works well as a primary de-greaser for metal parts.  I decant it into separate quart cans for paint thinning, cleaning, and gluing plastics, and into sealable jars for brush or parts cleaning.  For small jobs, such as kit building, I put it into the square Testors bottle with the brush-in-cap, but use a suitably-sized brush for application.
When using contact cement to join sheet styrene to other materials (such as wood or paper), I use a 2" brush to first "prep" the styrene with lacquer thinner:  apply the thinner to the styrene, then apply the contact cement to the other surface, and finally, apply the contact cement to the styrene.  Allow all surfaces to dry as per the instructions, then press together as usual.  I've found that the bond is much more permanent and have concluded that the styrene draws too much of the thinner from the contact cement, resulting in a weak bond, whereas pre-coating the styrene with lacquer thinner allows the cement's thinner to disperse (or not) as it would normally.  Works for me, anyway.

Like MEK, Acetone and many other solvents, lacquer thinner is toxic.  When working from a small container such as the Testors bottle, I usually don't worry about it, but for large gluing or cleaning  jobs or for airbrushing, a two-stage respirator is a must, as is adequate ventilation.  You won't smell anything while wearing the respirator, but it can stink-up the whole house pretty quickly, so keep that in mind if you have others in your house, especially children.  For that reason, and even though my paint booth is vented to the outdoors, I moved my paintshop to the detached garage, about 100' behind the house.

Wayne