I was trying to glue an arm to the torso of a resin figure using my newly open bottle of CA.I might as well spit on it for all good the glue did,it does a good job of sticking my fingers together or to a part.
So,I couldn’t locate an old thread on good super glue types that you find effective.What brands and types do you recommend for effectiveness and longevity in the bottle
Gorilla Super Glue with the light blue cap for most things. Where you need a little flexibility and a little more working time, VMS Flexy 5K is also excellent. Both have pretty much the same tip design, which never clogs, and have a good shelf-life (probably mostly due to not having to screw around with clogged tips all the time).
Tojo, I cannot resist jumping in on a thread about CA, especially when somebody is complaining because it is my least favorite of all of our typical adhesives**. For the reasons you mention and more.
Trouble is, when it’s the only thing that’s gonna work, what are ya gonna do?
The longest shelf life I’ve found is Bob Smith’s BMI, those are the bottles typically rebranded with store names on them, which you probably already know.
Thanks for this thread and I’ll be watching and learning. I’m always looking for a better and longer-lasting CA. I see Eaglecash already shared some favorites.
One thing I finally learned is stop buying the big bottles to save money.
Yes! I’ve tried Gorilla Glue 5 Minute Epoxy on my last couple of projects where I would normally use CA. The stuff works great. If you can hold the part in place for a couple of minutes one way or another, try it. It has its own learning curve, but that is quick to get over.
Gorilla works really well for filling and sanding too. Had a “what the hell…” moment one night at Walmart and picked some up, just because I was so frustrated with paying out the nose for hobby brands, only to have the nozzles clog and the stuff in the bottle gel to the point of being worthless after only a few months. Been using the Gorilla from Walmart ever since.
(music) All I am saaaying - is give CA a chance! :-)))
Here are some tips you might try to get CA to work better:
Parts fit: CA won’t really fill gaps between parts - unless you give them loong minutes without moving the parts in relation to each other, so it’s important to have fitting surfaces. Like my dentist put it - the glue works best when it isn’t there - you should minimize the amount of CA in the joint.
Surface condition: the surfaces should be clean, not very porous, prefarably unpainted (risk of parts lifting up the paint and coming off). The trick that works best for me is to wet down the surfaces with styrene glue = lacquer thinner = acetone, MEK, butyl acetate or a mixture thereof. This degreases the surfaces, but also in some way works as an accelerator for CA, so it gives you stronger and quicker drying joints.
Application - I usually apply CA by means of a piece of thin copper wire - so I have a tiny droplet at the end of the wire, that I spread when there is a suitable surface, or I let the parts join wick that tiny droplet in - we’re talking about highly liquid CA here. This also helps to minimize the amount of CA necessary to do the job.
There’s also one more use of CA in modelling, and not only - I use it to close cuts on my fingers when something bad happens… Once I was bending an aluminium tube for an exhaust stack of a 1:24 truck. The tube ripped right under my thumb and took a nice round chunk of that thumb out with it’s jagged edge. Started to bleed like a pig right away, so I just grabbed come CA and glued the chunk back in. That helped to manage the bleeding and mostly took care of the wound. Hey - that’s what the glue was invented for!
So don’t give up on CA - it might help you some day!
Yup. That’s the Gorilla CA that I use. I used it to bond the resin LH-mount HTS pod and Sniper ATP pylon to my F-16CJ intake at a fairly early stage in my build. Even with all of the handling the whole thing has gotten since then, neither thing has popped off. Also used it for the two resin pieces that make up the Sniper ATP pod. Its a medium-viscosity CA that overcomes alot of the issues with porous surfaces that Pawel mentioned. Another good way to accelerate a CA bond, if the situation allows, is to bond the two pieces and then give them a quick dunk in water. Cuts off the free oxygen supply and gets an instant cure. The only possible drawback to the water method is that it usually turns the CA a milky white color. Not usually a problem though unless it doesn’t get painted afterward.
I use both their thin regular stuff and their gel stuff which is gap filling and slower setting.
When plastic parts break, there is often some slight stretching, meaning tke parts do not fit together perfectly. In this case you must use the gel (gap filling) stuff. The thin regular stuff should only be used for a perfect fit. I find few pieces fit together perfectly, so I use a lot more of the gel stuff than the regular. Like the longer working time too.
The gel stuff has some sort of bladder inside that allows me to get the last drop out.
I’ve only ever used the CA glues made by Bob Smith Industries, whether they were sold under BSI’s own label, or sold under another label. The local HobbyTown, for example, sold BSI’s product, but in bottles labeled for HobbyTown. I didn’t seek the brand out; it’s just what local stores had on their shelves. Generally, I haven’t had any problems with it. I only ever had one bottle gel on me in a short time. I usually use the quick-curing formula, cures in 5 to 15 seconds. The one that went bad was a slower cure.
I also use BSI’s 2-part epoxy glue, too, never had any problems. I did learn a lesson, though, about using the slow-curing formula. I had to sit there for 15 minutes holding a piece till it cured-not often possible to jig the pieces I work with. When I used up that batch, I got the 5-minute cure formula instead.
Hey, don’t be surprised. I use the stuff on Paper-Models too. I find it’s neat for getting that stubborn flap or bend to stay put after assembly! And if the seam is stubborn hold it with tweezers and then hit it with accelerator. It holds ( pardon the pun) “Super Good”