Just got of the phone with my whole sale distributor. This product has been discontinued due new US EPA regulations just passed by the Democrat held US Congress.

My many thanks go to Hope N Change for further screwing up my life.

Next up will be resin and then paint.

Guess it is time to take up Fly Fishing!

Jose

The Tower Hobbies listing for Tenax lists Hebco's telephone (number just rings) and email contact info. I sent them an email asking about the cement... will see what happens (or not)

Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK), works just as good and heck of a lot cheaper.
Treat it as you would any other flammable liquid and try not to get a lot of it on your skin (it can be absorbed through the skin), but then I don't think you bathed in TENAX anyway.

Wheels UP-Water
Wheels DOWN-Land
DO NOT confuse the two !

Jose and BB;

I use Weld-On #3 and #4. It's still available in the US. Used mostly by plex fabricators but if you use a fine brush the 'heat' isn't a problem. Never melted a styrene kit joint line yet. #3 is the 'faster' of the two. I have pints of each in metal screw top cans (kept in a cool, dry) that I bought in the late 90s that still do the job. Wish I could say the same for all my $$$ un-used (now un-useable) casting resins.

Styrene scratch builders I know use MEK. I'm just use to Weld-on and change is very hard for me.

There are many of us that could put in rants about the 8 yrs under the GOP and the questionable leadership that got us in the current war with the continuing lose of life.

But like I said lets keep the politics out of the odel building.

And no one tried to ban any of my hobby products due to environmental nuts running the asylum.

express your political views in a non-political way.Nice move and great slight of hand.

You can't buy any paint that enmal now unless its still on the shelces. can't find the tamaya putty or texix. if wally world had it they pulled it from the shelves.

I'm just glad we finally can get the wonderful and nasty (keep away from huffers) Gunze Mr Color in the US of A. Thank you Sprue Bros, EPA, the hobby gods, whomever. Great stuff and boy does it smell!

Ann G. Hebner
Tenax-7R By MOdom Co.
1432 Linden Hwy.
Phone 931-796-0062

I work in hobby wholesale/distribution - Tenax supply has been spotty for for a while leading up to this, it was always some new excuse. We haven't gotten any Tenax in for several months, so I doubt it had anything to do with the new administration, though it may be due to the EPA. I think they just simply closed up shop. Hebco was a very small side business(Tenax 7R was their only product!) of a small family business. They were bad about answering e-mails when they were still in business!

First, and sorry if this steps on potitical toes out there, but NOTHING in chemical regulation moves that fast. We have YEARS notice on chemicals that are being regulated out.

However, we don't get a lot of time when a COMPANY desides to stop production. In most companies that is an economic decision and can be made with little or no notice.

A final thought, the chemicals that have been regulated out, well, they were NASTY. Not saying that Tenex was nasty, but even if one of the raw materials used had a by-product that was nasty it could be "regulated" out.

Chemical regulations are HEAVLY weighted on the side of economics, if it was regulated out, there was a DARN GOOD reason.

I hope that helps.

Greg in OK

Greg;

Never used the stuff but I wonder just what it was in Tenex that doomed the brew, yet isn't found in all the other popular hobby glue brews out there like Weld-on, MEK, etc. How about all the strong paint thinners, not to mention the oddball brews like whitewall tire cleaner some of us use to remove kit chrome?

Maybe a breather mask isn't enough anymore and a bio-suit is now in order to build models.

I use to use Bestine rubber cement thinner as a general rub down cleaner for parts before painting. And as a rubber cement thinner of course. Great for removing price tag gunk too w/o harming the box. Bought gallon metal cans of the stuff at the art supply store. Couple yrs ago when I went to get another, they looked at me like I was asking for plutonium. Store owner told me it was off the mkt cause it was found to be extremely toxic. Could also be absorbed thru the skin. I've been using the stuff for 40 yrs! Should I update my will?

Just what was in Tenex that brought it to the attention of the EPA?

Bestine Thinner is still sold - you can get it off of Amazon -http://www.amazon.com/BESTEST-UNION-RUBBER-BESTINE-SOLVENT/dp/B000HF6UR0 - you just can't get it in gallons, because you can't ship gallon cans by UPS or FedEx anymore, only in full cases of 4 and only by truck. Same regulations apply to R/C fuel now, you'd have to order an awful lot of Bestine Thinner to make it worthwhile to ship by truck - it takes 10 cases of R/C fuel for a minimum order and that stuff is $45 a gallon now.

Which goes right to the core of the point I was trying to make in my previous post, but maybe I was tiptoeing around coming right out and saying it - These people who tell you "they took it off the market" or "it was EPA regulations" are probably just blowing smoke up your @#$. Regulations may led to an increase in the cost of the raw materials that go into Tenax, but if it was a profit maker they would have found a way to continue making it, the price would have probably gone up, but Tenax was $3.99 as far back as I can remember while paint and other liquid hobby materials have risen steadily over the same time period, including a 10% jump in the last year or two. It's far more likely that Tenax just was not profitable anymore and they decided to quit making it, it was a side business for them, as I said. To blame it on a new president/congress and some magic "instant" regulation that just passed and takes effect overnight is just the wholesaler interjecting his personal political viewpoint into the conversation. I know how much of the daily banter in a hobby shop is political, believe me!

BB,

Good to know. Brain fade. I usually check the web (and Amz/eBay) for most everything nowadays. I still have a quart left so I'd not reached the panic stage yet. It was put on the back burner. The lower my reserve, the more intense the search would have gotten.

Everybody was saying that they were going to ban enamels and the only paints you could get would be acrylics and they were going to do away with all the glues and putties etc... and it was all California's fault and the rest of the modelling world was going to suffer because they're all tree huggers.... Blah, blah, blah

And 16 years later? Your favorite brand may be gone, but the product still exists. And it just dawned on me who the new president was 16 years ago, I guess I was too young back then to realize it was just political posturing.

Ambroid went away for a while and is now back under new ownership, maybe the same thing will happen with Tenax.

Guys, it's just Methylene Chloride.

Greg in OK

is marketing a product called "Same Stuff" which they claim is the same as Tenax and Pro Weld. And methylene chloride has been on the hit list for years. Years ago when I worked for Raytheon we couldn't use anything that had it in it.

Mike

This is a manufacturing issue not a political issue. Nice try but you can't point the figure anywhere but to the supplier. A little digging around and you can find all the EPA records, Toxic Substances Control Act, the declining use of it as a solvent and component for manufacturing and your blame is misdirected. If you get this worked up over a solvent for model building, maybe fly fishing is better for you. Or are you going to blame the fish for not jumping in your creel?

There are other alternatives and MEK can still be found here and there if you look for it.