Guess I better speak up on this one,,
I have to replace the cups on one of my wind indicators. They are 9 ounce Red Plastic Cups .... glued top towards top .... what's good to glue them together with? Hot Glue Gun? What Kind? Something Else?
Thanks ..... Fred
,,,because no one has got it right yet.
While developing the Wind Probe, I'm the one who came up with the idea of two plastic cups glued rim to rim and mounted on an aluminum arrow shaft with a single 8-32 nylon screw. Works great!
Extremely lightweight and fairly durable for as light and responsive as they are, but,,,, they DO have to be replaced from time to time and some people have trouble with that.
There are a couple of tricks to it and the main thing is to use the correct glue; and it ain't hot glue, epoxy, super glue or anything else except good old Testers plastic model cement.
Yep, the stuff we used to glue our plastic models together when we were kids!
It's available at any model shop or craft store. There are two different formulaes. One comes in a red tube and is very toxic, the other comes in a blue tube and is non-toxic and smells like citrus. I prefer the blue tube, non-toxic version and have found there is no difference in strength. This stuff literally 'welds' styrene together. Like I said, super glue, epoxy, hot glue and other such stuff won't work; trust me.
I have jigs, punches and other fixtures to use at my shop because I do so many but you can do a perfect job at home if you know a couple of tricks and are willing to take the time. The best way to put the holes in the cup bottoms is to punch them, especially the larger hole that slides down over the arrow shaft. The small, #8 hole can be drilled pretty easy but the larger one tends to tear if you try to drill it. One probe user, Jan Sarras says he sharpens the mouth of an empty 308 cartridge case and uses that to punch the holes in his cups.
Anyway, getting back to glueing the cup rims together; how do you put the glue on the rims without making a mess? Easy, simple.
Squirt a puddle of glue on a glass surface and dip the rims in it. You only have to put glue on one of the cup rims and then set it on top of the dry one. Line up the rims as best you can and set it aside to dry.
Hope this helps.
Gene Beggs
