CA Accelerator Question

It's a nuisance isn't it? What I do is shoot a squirt or two into a small bottle cap and then apply it with an old brush. Works with aerosol accelerator too, just gotta be careful when you squirt it.

I never spray it. My latest method is to open the accelerator bottle dunk a Micorbrush in it and then apply to the model. Nothing wasted

- no mess. If you get good at it (not plop the Microbrush in the glue but slightly away from it then let the accelerator flow into the glue) you can reuse the Microbrush many times. And even if some glue gets on the Microbrush it is still usable. Of course Microbrushes are disposable (if things don't go as planned). :-)

Peteski

It is REALLY bad when you have an Alclad finish. The accelerator seems to really attack Alclad, and with the spray you get it all over. I have learned to NOT use CA accelerator around Alclad.

This question piqued my cuirosity, as I have always remembered the acclerator coming in a spray bottle (and not a particularly fine mist nozzle either - I currently have an Insta-Set bottle, and the spray pattern's about the same as my bottle of Bactine in the medicine cabinet - i.e., not very good). Two ideas present themselves - one, use a small eyedropper to place the accelerator on the glue joint (so nothing but accelerator touches the CA - no brushes glue to the joint here), and two, apply CA to one surface, apply accelerant to the other surface to be joined, and attach them together (I haven't tried this one, but it's stated you get one chance, that's it, so it's not a good technique on days when you have the model-making yips...) Possibly when CA acclerator was first concieved, it was for wide CA glue joints (and especially gap-filling), so a wide spray pattern was OK (just wash off the excess after the joint was harden...which was instaneous! Yay!). Although why those spray bottles still dominate, dunno. Hmm, wonder if a narrow nozzle tube like WD-40 has would work...

I use Testors Accelerator. It's in a little bottle just like their enamel paints. They give you a little "plastic squeeze bubble" with a

1 inch tube. You dip the tube in the bottle, squeeze the bubble a little and it picks us a drop or two and you put it where you need it. Why bother with the spray stuff??

Just found these whilst looking for something totally unrelated:

I apply Zip Kicker by means of a small flat screwdriver. Sounds odd, but is very effective...

I've never seen accelerator in a spray bottle, but then there are a lot of things I've never seen. The accelerator I use is in an 8oz bottle from Hobby Lobby, and I just use an old paintbrush or a microbrush. I haven't had a problem yet with the brushes sticking to things they're not supposed to.

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The accelerator is an organic amine- I found that a syringe with a small needle works great. It allows the application of just a thin line along a seam, and gives a very controlled application.

There are at least half-a-dozen different types of CA accelerators. Some are "hotter" and stinkier than others. Some even contain acetone!

My favorite is the one from Bob Smith Industries. It is very mild (as far as not attacking paint and plastic) and it is low odor. I get it at LHS.

I also have Pacer Industries Zip-Kicker. That one if much hotter and it attacks both styrene and paint.

Peteski

I had a thought here. Why not get a bottle of iodine, wash it out well, and keep the spray-type accelerator in that, using the cap applicator to apply it where you want?

Pat

I apply a drop of cold water from my finger. A brush or spray application works as well. The point is one does not need a chemical accelerator that crazes plastic. Cold water works just as well and does not craze plastic.

$5.15 *EACH*?!?!?

I think I might have just peed myself a little. Those guys can be made for a lot less. I have a stinking box of 1000 of the precursors. I'll get the label and part number, and make one of the pictured guys and tell you how to do it.

E.P.

I am on my 3rd bottles of the Testors Kicker so I now have 3 of those little pipettes. They don't seem to degrade in any way. Best of all they are free with a bottle. With the 40% off coupons at Hobby Lobby, the whole package is just over a dollar. One hint, I made a 2" square "cradle" out of 4 wood strips with a hole just big enough for that little bottle. Now, I will never spill any every again (:>

$5.15 gets you a pack of 25.