Boredom creates a great idea.

sapper23

Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2025
Messages
74
So I use alot of extra thin cement. I also use mainly for big or structural pieces old schools testirs red tube glue. Yes there are some annoying things with that glue. It can be clumpy, sometimes it puts out more glue than you want so on and also can have the stringy glue effect.

One of the things I like about the extra thin cement is how it can get into anything and the way it dries. It does drive me crazy though when you reach that point in the container where the glue no longer contacts the brush.


I wanted an in-between so to say something that would maintain property's of both to a degree, would have the brush alternative and be watery but have strength of the red tube so ... I was at point of no brush contact on the bottle of extra thin.

I decided to drop a tube of old red cement into the extra thin... 1 tube to just where the extra thin was beyond the brush. I am beyond happy with the result. So far in my experimentation it has all the quality's I mentioned above.. is strong, does not dry to fast, can seep some into crevices, but best of all I don't waste the extra thin that's left over. It is very controllable the amount put down so on.

I will continue to experiment with it today so on and will let everyone know results. I need to see more of it and try it little bit more for a full verdict. But is a great way to use those old red tubes if works out lol.
 
Wow, I haven't thought of that, I'm very interested in the final results.
I still use the Testors tube glue, (the blue one) as well.
When the brush no longer reaches the extra thin I refill it to the top with the next bottle.
 
Try this to replace your Tamiya Extra Thin at 3 times less the price and your bottle will go dry far less often.

ABclean.jpg

Same quality as Extra Thin, but you'll get over 3 bottles for far less than 1 bottle of Extra Thin. NOT to replace the idea you're posting about, but to get extra thin cheaper.

Rob.
 
Even cheaper is to buy acetone and butylacetate from a chemicals supplier, then mix them 1:1 yourself :) Both Tamiya extra thin and airbrush cleaner are made up of those two substances, officially at slightly different ratios — 50:50 vs. 49:51 or something like that — but I've been informed that this is merely because Japanese law doesn't allow two distinct products to have the exact same ingredients in the exact same proportions.
 
Try this to replace your Tamiya Extra Thin at 3 times less the price and your bottle will go dry far less often.

View attachment 136504

Same quality as Extra Thin, but you'll get over 3 bottles for far less than 1 bottle of Extra Thin. NOT to replace the idea you're posting about, but to get extra thin cheaper.

Rob.
I mix my own extra thin with a 50/50 mix of acetone and butyl acetate for about $1.20 for a 40ml bottle.

Screenshot (126).png
 
Last edited:
1738595543726.png
I refill my extra thin bottles with M.E.K. (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) straight up...$18 CDN for a litre from my local Home Hardware or Crappy Tire. Ultra thin, very strong bond, gives a little time for repositioning and...throw a bunch of sprue scraps in to a bottle full and you get a really strong, smooth, sandable body filler.
 
Last edited:
You can carefully pull the brush on the extra thin applicator out a bit and it will reach. Just don't do it with your bare skin. :)
 
I refill my extra thin bottles with M.E.K. (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) straight up...$18 CDN for a litre
As I've mentioned before, I think, I do most of my model glueing with this:

bison-ontvetter-tin-250ml-6-l1-1310025-1310025.jpeg

It's some solvent mixture whose exact details aren't overly important, but MEK is part of it. It costs around the same for a quarter of a litre as model cement does for 40 ml, so I just refill a Mr. Hobby (GSI Creos) cement bottle from it any time it runs low.

After I tried Tamiya extra thin a few years ago, I decided it was a useful addition but like Tim I bought bottles of acetone and butyl acetate, from which I likewise refill the TET bottle when necessary.
 
All these are great and honestly very helpful, will defo be trying some of those. I just wanted to use my tube glue but give it the advantages somewhat that extra thin has.oit has worked really well for me...

As far as more glue eventually I am for sure going to try to find at least one of those from above and save some money.
 
I mix my own extra thin with a 50/50 mix of acetone and butyl acetate for about $0.80 for a 40ml bottle.

View attachment 136598

This is very interesting! Mr. Tim, where do you get those, if I may? Those are exact Extra Thin ingredients.

View attachment 136624
I refill my extra thin bottles with M.E.K. (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) straight up...$18 CDN for a litre from my local Home Hardware or Crappy Tire. Ultra thin, very strong bond, gives a little time for repositioning and...throw a bunch of sprue scraps in to a bottle full and you get a really strong, smooth, sandable body filler.

I use a fair amount of MEK also, but I've always found it hard to store without it getting out somehow.

Rob.
 
So I use alot of extra thin cement. I also use mainly for big or structural pieces old schools testirs red tube glue. Yes there are some annoying things with that glue. It can be clumpy, sometimes it puts out more glue than you want so on and also can have the stringy glue effect.

One of the things I like about the extra thin cement is how it can get into anything and the way it dries. It does drive me crazy though when you reach that point in the container where the glue no longer contacts the brush.


I wanted an in-between so to say something that would maintain property's of both to a degree, would have the brush alternative and be watery but have strength of the red tube so ... I was at point of no brush contact on the bottle of extra thin.

I decided to drop a tube of old red cement into the extra thin... 1 tube to just where the extra thin was beyond the brush. I am beyond happy with the result. So far in my experimentation it has all the quality's I mentioned above.. is strong, does not dry to fast, can seep some into crevices, but best of all I don't waste the extra thin that's left over. It is very controllable the amount put down so on.

I will continue to experiment with it today so on and will let everyone know results. I need to see more of it and try it little bit more for a full verdict. But is a great way to use those old red tubes if works out lol.
One of the things I learned in the gas exploration field, is I always assumed to a certain point, that every one knew what I knew and at times it could be embarrassing. So I will assume you don't know about this and forgive me if this is common knowledge, or comes off more than condescending.
The tip extends.IMG_6652.jpeg
 
To me it's not about the extra thin as much as it is making red tube glue more user friendly so to say...

FYI I found and bought at a yard sale about 50 tubes of it for $25.00. great deal and now the mix works for me and is much more user friendly.

Extra thin I still use appropriately and will continue using but, the bulk items others listed will help me when it's refill time.
 
Just "Rob" for you.

Thank you very much! I will need to check on that.

:cool:

Rob.
Shipping from Alliance is a bit pricey ($18.10 to my house). If you get the acetone at HD it is less expensive (save around $8). I didn't add the tax to my original calculation so it's around $1.05 per TET bottle (40ml).
 
Try this to replace your Tamiya Extra Thin at 3 times less the price and your bottle will go dry far less often.

View attachment 136504

Same quality as Extra Thin, but you'll get over 3 bottles for far less than 1 bottle of Extra Thin. NOT to replace the idea you're posting about, but to get extra thin cheaper.

Rob.

I just paid 10 dollars per for four of these on sale and had a twenty dollar credit there so I really paid 20 dollars for four of them
 

Latest posts

Back
Top