My other hobby is plastic modeling, so I have a pretty large arsenal of adhesives. I am about to start the Estes D region tomahawk, which has a lot of plastic parts. The instructions say to use Tube Glue to attach plastic to card board. Plastic cement typically works by melting the plastic so it welds together. Epoxy seems like a better choice for joining dissimilar materials. Is there some compelling reason to use tube glue? Or maybe they suggest that for ease of assembly so people do not have to mess with two part epoxy?
This will be my first biggish rocket with a D motor. It looks like it will be a fun one to fly.
Your assumption is correct, the kit suggestion is "the Easy" answer for one time flyers. But tube type plastic cement like most other Solvent welding agents just doesn't have any penetration power on wood or cardboard. Simple fight vibration and flexing will cause these joints to fail in pretty short order.
Epoxy is most definately that best choice for fixing Plastic parts to cardboard or wood. Part of the process should be to heavily rough up the inside surfaces of the parts being joined or even drill a few small holes to form epoxy rivets at these assemblies as they cure.
Solvent Welding Agents really doesn't hold up well either on Styrene/cardboard joints. It'd be a better choice then CA but still really doesn't have the holding power of a two part epoxy on these dissimilar materials.
Polyurethane glues (golilla glue) require wetting and are specifically formulated for use on Wood products then can be securely clamped during drying as the material expands into a foam as it cures. Great stuff on woodend cabinet joints..absolute CRAP on model rockets. OK for holding Noseweight and possibly some motor mounts were the end results won't be seen but in general the stuff makes an awful mess. unless tightly clamped and controlled.
Do NOT use CA on these parts as the main adhesive. CA becomes very brittle over a very short period of time and will fail. Epoxy retains a bit of elasticity making the joints permanent.
CA is great stuff for quick set tacking, short term competition models, filling holes or creating some details in styrene but because of it's tendency to become brittle it's just not a good choice for this type of application or applications were the parts are subject to a lot of vibration or flexing...ie in flight.
All Adhesives and Glues are NOT created equal and have very specific purposes; There is no such thing as the perfect adhesive for all jobs. You mentioned having lots of adhesives and glues at your disposal, that's a good sign. Leaning which do what with different substrates is well worth the time and effort reading lables and experimenting a little along the way
Hope this helps.
