Cyanoacrylics and accelerators

[TheWalrus]

I discovered something the other day about the superglue genre of adhesives.

 

Don't co-locate cyano's with accelerators. I made the mistake of doing that and each of the cyano's was cured hard as a rock. Several of the bottles were never opened, and the accelerator was covered with its cap. Apparently on a submolecular level the stuff can pass through plastic and contaminate or cause the superglue to react.

 

Expensive lesson indeed. Wasted 3 larger bottles of cyanoacrylics.

[ghodges]

Interesting! Mine are separated by a foot or so on the bench, and that seems to be enough to avoid the problem. Also, I've also only used the CHEAPEST superglue I can find: 4 tubes for $1 at Walmart. I've found it works as well, and mixes even easier with talcum or baby powder when I need a "filler"; where as the expensive superglues react too fast to use with powder! And, if anything does happen to a tube of glue, I'm out twenty-five cents!

 

GIL

[Ron Bell]

I, too, am a frugal modeler and use the sixteen (or whatever) in a bubble pack bought by the check out register variety super glue. Another factor in this stuff not "freezing up" might be that it's containers are metal, not plastic. Might seal all the wooly-boogers out better.

[Silas]

I'm a cheap guy too. I buy the Dollar Store tubes and keep the unused tubes in the freezer in a zip-lock bag. As far as accelerator goes, I get by using a drop or two of water. Over the years I've had the chemical kicker melt some of the more wonky-types of Eastern European plastic, so I just use water.

[GregWise]

I only use Zap a Gap mainly because I like using fine point glue tips, in fact I leave my bottle open with only a long fine point tip on it, I never cap it, and it lasts for years and the accelerator is always close by.