If you have never used a Touch-n-flow styrene glue applicator you should give it a try. It is a glass tube with a hypodermic needle in one end. To use it just dip one end in a bottle of your favorite glue (tenex, for me) and let the tube draw in the glue. Pull it out of the bottle and put the cap back on the glue bottle. The Touch-n-flow will hold enough glue for a few joints which is just one of its advantages. That allows you to close that glue bottle so you won’t spill it or have to breathe those fumes. When you’re ready to glue two pieces together just draw the needle across the joint and capillary action will pull the glue into the joint and out of the Touch-n-flow. What works so nice is that you don't have to keep dipping a brush back into a bottle three or four times just to get one piece glued together. The Touch-n-flow will hold enough for a few joints. The other advantage is that you’re not rubbing a glue soaked brush on the visible part of a styrene joint and causing brush strokes. You can use this thing to glue two painted parts together and it will not harm the paint like a brush will. The bad thing about the Touch-n-flow is that if you push the needle just a tiny bit into the styrene it will plug. Clearing the plug is hard to do. The inside diameter of the needle is a shade over 0.008". I have used 0.008" wire to clear plugs, but you will really want to avoid them. Also if you drop the Touch-n-flow it will break. They cost about 5-6 dollars, but you will love this thing.
I just picked one up at my local hobby shop. I bought two more the other day because I dropped one (it rolled off the bench) and I thought I would keep a spare around incase it happened again. This things are great, all my friends that I told about these, and they tried them, they love them. You will not know how you went this long with out one.
Sounds like a neat tool! Today, while at N scale supply, I picked up some supplies for laying track in a week or so, and a plastic sprue nipper. I heard these things are invaluable!
We used to have a trick to keep our drafting pencils from rolling off, that might be useful for the applicator: We would wrap a short length of masking tape around the "eraser end", form a "wing" about a 1/4" long by folding the tape back on its self, then wrap the tape around to where the wing started. (If it got too flimsy, we would wrap the wing again. The tape is cheap and lasts a long time. It is a labor intensive job to do, however, and I just happen to have all the necessary tools to do it, so, (If you aren't mechanically inclined, feel free to mail me a couple of your applicators, and I'll perform this operation for you, for $20.00 plus postage)! I also had one of those coiled spring pencil holders for the ink pens too. That kept the pen from rolling away, and also kept it up off the paper to prevent accidental blotting. [ 02. June 2003, 14:57: Message edited by: watash ]
The problem you would have with wrapping tape around the Touch-n-flow is that you have to dip it into the bottle of tenex, and that would make a mess out of the tape. The tape would work if you use the touch-n-flow the way I use it (not recommended). I put the tip in the bottle and suck on the end to draw the glue into the applicator. I watch the glue rise about halfway up then I stop. I like to do it that way because, 1 it's faster, 2 I feel it keeps the tip cleaner, and 3 it allows me to fill the touch-n-flow higher than the level of the glue in the bottle. Take my word for it though; you don't want to get any of that tenex in your mouth. I make sure the tip is well below the surface of the liquid, if it rises out of the liquid when your sucking on the end of the touch-n-flow the little bit that you did suck up will shoot into your mouth. I guess when I get cancer in a few years we will all know why, it will be either from drinking too much tenex or the 15 years I sprayed Floquil paint with out a spray booth or mask.
Ahh yes, Chemical exposure. 25-30 years ago, it was commonplace to spray paint in the garage, then wash you hands with gasoline, paint thinner, or even dio-sol. We used to clean things with Acetone, Xylene, n-Butyl-Acetate, and freon. Inhale the fumes and get dizzy, and step outside for a smoke break. Nobody ever gave it much thought. I used to work for a place 25 years ago, that used Sulfuric Acid, and many other nasties, and they instructed me to dump the last 1/2" of the chemicals in a mud pit someone dug with a backhoe around the back. They said dump solvents in that pit, and acids in the other because if I leave too much in the bottle, it will start the dumpster on fire. The garbage man was always driving off with a smoldering stinky truck. Nobody ever gave it a passing thought... until all the neighborhood children started developing lukemia, and lots of stillbirths. It turned out all the companies in the area were doing the same thing with their excess chemicals, and it got into the groundwater. Over the next 10 years, the practices stopped, OSHA came in and educated us of our practices, and we learned we had been exposed to some of the most nasty stuff ever developed. By the time I hit my 30's some of my co-workers started developing cancers and dying, my best friend died at 43 of liver cancer 10 years ago. That was the eye opener for me. I have tried my best to minimize exposure to chemicals ever since, waiting for the timebomb I carry to stop ticking. I now use a homemade paintbooth, and run it for about 15 minutes after painting to make sure I don't smell the fumes. I also try to do projects that are white glue friendly instead of the plastic glue, which is not too liver friendly. I also like to put my freshly painted projects in a shoebox to dry/cure if they were painted with Floquil (which is still my favorite paint) overnight. I also have a respirator w/hepa dust filters that I use when staining furniture and other smelly jobs, and have been in the habit of using safety glasses when soldering, fireing up the dremel, painting or sanding. Not enough can be said for safety, and safe handling of the materials we use in our hobby can end up saving us and our families from the hazards they present.
I thought it would have been obvious that one is to wrap the tape around the upper end of the tube, not the needle end where tenax would come in contact with the tape. If you wish to suck on the applicator, at least do it the way they do in laboratories: slip a length of surgical rubber tubing over the "mouth" end of the applicator. That way you can more easily see when you have drawn the tenax level as high as you intended into the glass tube. Any excess goes into the surgical tubing, and hopefully you will stop sucking before you get tenax into your mouth. Personally, I have used a rubber squeeze bulb for this, because I really never developed a taste for Tenax, oils, or india ink, all of which work well for this applicator, as well as other pipettes. I hope you never get a mouth full of CA!
I did once when I was a kid. The end of the bottle was clogged up so I tried to use my teeth to crack off the hard build up on the end of the bottle. When it broke free I got a big shot of CA right in my mouth. That sucked big time. My friend that was with me thought it was funny though.
