Spud plastic

[E R Swanson <ers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My call is that the Spuds are bakelite, not styrene as you find in model
kits. Bakelite is brittle (weapon's grade plastic! :) but quite stable if
you keep it away from a lot of direct heat. A test is to see if it will
dissolve or soften with acetone or tolulene. Styrene melts with powerful
organic solvents, baklelite may soften minutely, but not so's you'd
notice. Which is why you always, repeat always, rebuild broken bakelite
with cyanoacrylate cement (superglue) and accelerators not model making
cement or epoxy. Fixing a bakelite red button viewer with epoxy dooms it
to look like a piece of ugly junk forever. 

Elliott

On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, Tom Deering wrote:

> >>You left out the lengthy section on using a Realist as a weapon.  Gruesome,
> >>but effective.   :^)
> >
> >  Not to mention using the Sputnik as a
> >weapon.  After the first blow you pick
> >up the sharpest piece of bakelite and then
> >stab them with it. :)
> 
> Heh, heh.  That's pretty good!  :^)
> 
> It a Sputnik really bakelite?  I assumed the Lubitel was similar, but it's
> made of the same plastic as a model airplane.
> 
>