"Need help to import plastic glue. Any ideas?" Topic

I am in Bangladesh. (I know, I know, I'm a nut for being here.)

I have a ton of Wargames Factory plastics incoming. I had ordered 5 gallons of MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) or Butanone which I learned, from TMP, is what a lot of plastic glues/cements are made with. I ordered from Ace Hardware who subsequently told me they couldn't deliver.

There is a general problem of sending this, or any of the plastic glues, from the US. Surface has been discontinued, and they won't take the stuff by air.

Did anyone face a similar problem and find a supplier?

I decided to try Ambroid ProWeld basewd upon the recommendation of Tony at Wargames Factory. I want to kick off with 36 2oz bottles. I have a lot of stuff to glue together! This is before I even get started on ordering plastic Naps.

I am having a go at trying to find a supplier in Australia right now. They may be more able to send the stuff by air.

Maybe find a Humbrol or Revell major Distributor and see if you can get it from them in bulk. They would be used to shipping stuff like that by the pallet load.

Maybee try India or China ?

Companies like Humbrol and Revell don't operate in Bangladesh.

The problem is quantity. They may sell me 100 metric tons but not 5 or 10 gallons.

For locating MEK, try professional paint stores. Both automotive and furniture finishers use this thinner at times. Plus, a paint shop which does a lot of Electro-Static painting might use MEK to cut the paint before spraying.

Besides India and China, how about Hong Kong (now a part of China, but…) or Japan?

5 gallons? Really? I sort of assumed that a "ton" of plastics was simply a metaphor. The stuff goes a long way you know. An average joint on a WGF figure might use a couple (maybe tens) of microliters. So one gallon might give you around 30000 joints.

They must have the stuff in Singapore hobby shops. Would they send by courier?

MEK, acetone and butanone are standard industrial chemicals. You should not need to get them fom hobby distributors. Try local industrial chemical suppliers.

EDIT: All are highly flammable. If Bangladesh does not require Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) or the equivalent for these chemicals, Google "MSDS". There are a lot of sites with listings for all 3, which are very closely related chemicals.
I assume you will be decanting into smaller bottles for ease of use.

Hi,

There are no hobby distributors. There are no industrial chemical suppliers as such, just importers with a license who might do the job if you want 100 metric tons. There are no small businesses here.

Paint shops just sell paint for walls, and not chemicals. If you ask for something odd people just shrug their shoulders, even if a little thought would produce what you want. It is a funny place.

I got a letter from the industrial zone authority where I'm located telling me I needed Navy clearance to import these chemicals a few weeks ago. That would be a very long and expensive process. So I'm looking to score this from someone else or bring it in under the radar.

There is one scientific shop. Will try there.

Cheers

Neil

Easiest thing to do is find someone local who uses one of the chemicals, any tool/pattern makers near or resin casters both will have acetone or MEK

Where does the local university's chemistry department get theirs?

The obvious and the logical don't work in Bangladesh. You could be sitting on top of what you wanted, chatting with the countries expert, who put it where you are sitting, and he would shrug his shoulders when you asked for it. You have to ask for the same thing in 100 different ways. You have to do some of their thinking for them. You have to totally spell out what you want, what is commonly misunderstood, etc.