I went to use my trusty Araldite only to find that
the tops would not unscrew, and my attempts to
do it were twisting up the tubes themselves, with
a rupture likely.
How long have I had it?
I don't know, but the price, which is printed as part
of the box, and not as an add-on sticky label, is
given as, "6/-"
So, then I turned to my "Rapid Araldite", where the
price WAS on a sticky label as 86p (which is 2.8
times the price of the previous), and it is suffering from
the same twist-up-the-tube-and-not-unscrew-the-cap
problem.
In both cases, I'd always been very careful to keep the
two tubes separate from each other, and not to mix
up the caps, with the two tubes stored opposite ways
into the box, so perhaps there is a sell-by date / shelf life
limitation for this product?
I have had a similar problem when the tubes are cold. These materials
are very viscous when cold and the tube will bend, distort and even
rupture when unscrewed. If you warm them up to circa 30 degrees the
caps come off relatively easily. I now always buy epoxy in a pack
which has a double syringe since it eliminates this problem.
Regards
Mike
Still have some tubes from the late 60's that have had stiff tops for years.
Just pop them, cap downwards, into a cup and fill with water from a well run
hot tap, leave for a couple of minutes, dry off, and the tops will come off
with no problem, but just watch as the contents will be quite runny - this
makes the mixing far easier.
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