Acting on an idea from a member here, I purchased a bottle of Gator Hobby Glue. The discussion was about attaching PE and the delicate nature of CA in such tiny amounts.
The stuff arrived and I immediately went to work with it. Here’s what I’ve found.
If you’ve ever used Krystal Klear this stuff seems like the same stuff at first. The product looks that same, feels the same, is odorless. I’m not sure what KK is other than white glue but Gator Glue is touted as an acrylic product. It’s label claims it will join dissimilar materials.
On further observation, I noticed when I dip a toothpick in the stuff what’s left disturbed in the container holds it’s shape. It doesn’t level back out like KK does. On the project it seems to act like KK, it stays in place and beads up. It dries quickly and one has to gauge the speed of work against the speed of the glue. So far I’ve attached clear parts with it (it dries clear) and some stainless steel pins.
For clear parts I applied a small bead of the product to the edges of the canopy and immediately put the part in place, mushing the product out around the seam and using a q-tip dipped in water to clean up the excess. Worked like a charm and in fact, the label indicates to use a drop or two of water in the bottle if the product gets to thick over time.
In couple of minutes the product has started to go clear and the part was stuck rather well. Happy with that.
In another use I attached clear parts with the glue with butt joints. I applied the glue to one side of the joint and waited about a minute and a half before joining the parts. I aligned then pushed the parts together and they were immediately stuck. Still flexible but stuck together well enough that I didn’t need to hold them.
A third experiment was with the SS pins. I drilled holes into styrene, dipped the end of the short pins in the product which resulted in a small bead, then stuck the pins in the predrilled holes, giving them a wiggle to help the glue get into the hole. These seemed to dry a lot slower than the other experiments and 15 mins later they could still be wiggled though they were getting stiff. The next day the pins were stuck fast and I could not pull them out easily.
Though I originally bought the product to use in place of CA with PE parts I’ve found it works great in other places. It takes more time than using CA but the hold is much more resilient. After my clear parts were dry I tried to remove them and found that the bond was much stronger than KK or Model Master clear parts cement. Letting the product dried undisturbed for a minute or so (less time for smaller amounts) then sticking the parts together created an immediate strong bond that I think will work well for small parts and PE because sheer forces will not pop the parts loose like CA. Bump a lever glued on with this stuff and it will bend, not pop off.
I tried to sand the stuff with limited success. The product shrinks a small amount when it dries but not as much as other glues. I tried to sand a small bead of the dried product and found that it can be sanded but with mild pressure. I used a gray (medium) sanding stick and very light pressure and it sanded ok. I could tell that to much pressure would result in tearing and rolling up the product. I may have not let it dry enough before sanding though so the jury is still out on the sanding.
I’m looking forward to using Gator Glue in more places in the future. At the moment I don’t have a PE project going but I’m considering using some spare pieces for an experiment. I think it will work very well and will be a good alternative to CA for PE parts, practically guaranteeing you won’t look into the cockpit of your next completed project and find you can’t throttle the plane or set the parking brake anymore because the lever is missing.
http://www.gatorsmask.com/gatorglueorder.html
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