Estes Apollo Little Joe II Build, Part 18, Nozzle Gluing

I used Plastruct Plastic Weld plastic solvent cement.
This was one of the plastic cements recommended in the TRF builds.

In a blog comment, Metalhead 1986 gave some sound advice:
"I'm sure you know, but if your readers are not familiar with these types of adhesives, they are meant to be used with the parts pressed together and the brush touched to the joint. Capillary action will draw the glue into the joint, dissolve the plastic, and complete the "gluing" when the plastic re-solidifies as one piece. The included brush is useless for all but the most basic jobs. Any fine work, like this, and the Tamiya 1/16 RC tanks I build, will require a more precise brush to get the solvent just where you want it. When I build my next LJII, this is what I will use.



I very lightly sanded the nozzle side with the holes to make it flatter. This takes down any flash off the sides and can actually give a cleaner glue joint.
You can't sand the pin side with the raised inside edges.

First I applied glue to the inside edges of the hole side piece. The two halves were pressed together.

After that I brushed more glue down the joint on the inside.




On the left is the nozzle after the glued dried. The seam joint is very tight.

400 grit was wrapped around a dowel and the seam sanded. On the right the seam is pretty much gone!