Does butanone work on pre-painted chairs and sleepers?

[Typographer]

I built an ash pit using the Scalescenes PDF and C&L plastic chairs placed on their plywood sleepers. I had to place the track in place from above, and the pit in place from below, so I thought the solvent I applied by brush would run between chairs and timber by capillary action. Try as I might, I can’t get the butanone to stick the chairs to the timbers. Perhaps because I painted them first? I think it’s short enough to stay in gauge, but I’d like to find out what I’m doing wrong. Any thoughts?

 

 

[Darius43]

Do you normally use butanone to glue unpainted C&L chairs to plywood sleepers?  I ask because I didn’t think butanone would work with wood, but I’ve never tried so maybe it does.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Typographer]

40 minutes ago, Darius43 said:

Do you normally use butanone to glue unpainted C&L chairs to plywood sleepers?  I ask because I didn’t think butanone would work with wood, but I’ve never tried so maybe it does.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

This is the only piece of track that isn’t bought from Peco! Or rather, it’s Peco Bullhead rail with original chairs and sleepers cut away. I thought I had explained my needs to C&L but perhaps I wasn’t clear. 

[dasatcopthorne]

If they are C and L chairs, Butanone should work.

 

It should soften the plastic which will then integrate with the grain of the wood.

 

I would slip some rough Wet & Dry between the two and try to clean the underside of the chairs.

Dave.

[Typographer]

They are C&L (both chairs and plywood) and I did scrape off the excess paint before positioning, but I didn’t go as far as sandpapering. At this point, I think I’d prefer to use an alternative fluid glue I can apply with a fine brush.

[Gordon A]

If you have prepainted the chairs and sleepers, then you are putting a barrier between them which may prevent the glue from working.

I always glue my chairs to plywood or plastic sleepers before painting. I have not had any problems with butanone doing it this way.

 

Gordon

[dasatcopthorne]

Superglue now then.

 

Dave.

[Tim Dubya]

2 hours ago, Darius43 said:

Do you normally use butanone to glue unpainted C&L chairs to plywood sleepers?

 

I understood that butanone was the recommended solvent for ply sleepers and plastic chairs?  

Is the butanone old, as it may expire and loose it's potency?  You can buy it quite cheaply in eBay, or at least you could a year or so ago 👍

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Butanone doesn't 'go off' chemically, the only thing that will happen if the cap is left off is that it evaporates, and atmospheric water may condense in it, that will inhibit its solvent action.

12 hours ago, Gordon A said:

If you have prepainted the chairs and sleepers, then you are putting a barrier between them which may prevent the glue from working.

Specifically, the paint is going to make the ply sleepers largely impervious to the butanone and the chair material dissolved in it, which is what is required to bond plastic to a porous material using a solvent. Replacing the sleepers with fresh ply would be best.

[Typographer]

Ok thank you everybody! Sounds like superglue is the way forward, but will try to slip some sandpaper between chairs and sleepers first. 

[Stephen Freeman]

Depends on the paint in general. Butanone is a pretty good paint solvent so unless you have used a lot to paint the timbers it shouldn't have too much effect, thats my experience.

[hayfield]

I would expect its the paint that is the issue, but in this case either superglue or use epoxy glue

[Jol Wilkinson]

I stain ply sleepers and timbers with Liberon Spirit Wood Dye which soaks into the wood. I then use butanone to fix the chairs (Exactoscale in my case).  The chairs bond well to the timber and the solvent has little effect on the stain. If it does it is easy to apply a bit more stain with a small brush.