What IS it with cyano-acrylate glues? Grrrrrr

Try refrigerating it...not freezing ,just in the fridge.... I've read it on the label of the loc-tite brand I have.

Stan

I've managed to determine my usage patterns & (usually) only buy enough for what I'm going to need, in the time that a bottle will last.

JM

Some background on superglue.

"> I repeat: grrrrrrrr....

Over the years I've had the same problem. I tend to used small tubes of Krazy Glue - arrange things so I do alot of gluing right after opening - and then discard if I'm not going to glue again in the next few days. Krazy glue now markets 4 single use tubes in a set. Use it and throw away.

Val Kraut

They don't dry up - they harden (a chemical reaction). If you work in a humid environment, the moisture will speed up the hardeneing.

If you use any accelerators, some minute amounts might also find their way to your glue in the bottle and again cause hardeneing. That is just the way they work.

My basement workshop is very humid in the summer and this happens to me too. I usually buy the 4-packs of little tubes in a hardware store. Only cost couple of dollars. That way, whatever happens, even if I don't use one tube in time (and it hardens), I'm only out one tube. Those tubes come sealed, so they last pretty long time (if they stay sealed). I don't store my glue in the fridge either.

Peteski

Sort of humid.

We live about five minutes from salt water, on an island about an hour north and west of Seattle. Yet this whole area is not --as popular wisdom suggests-- "always raining". Statistically, NY gets more annual rainfall than Seattle, though there's always snow in the Cascade mountain range that splits WA east and west, especially during fall & winter of course. But we're well west of it.

Never have.

I seal mine religiously: right after application, often even before putting the parts together. Still, that humidity effect could be a factor here. I can very easily live with it, of course. It's just annoying.

I'll look for the small '4 pack' packages.

that could be a good question to pose to the editors of a modeling mag like FSM.

Craig

As I recall, cyanoacrylates need water to set - it's a chemical process, like cement hardening (cement will harden underwater). It's not a solvent process, and evaporation is not part of it. Blowing on a cyanoacrylate joint *will* help it set - because of the moisture in your breath.

So you need to keep your cyano bottles dry - so make sure the cap goes back on straight away. The fridge will work as a storage location because it is dry: the colder you get, the less moisture is in the air (think about it: at zero centigrade there is *no* moisture in the air - it has all frozen out)

Super glue does not "dry out"--rather it is catalyzed and hardened by water vapor in the air. It will last longer if it can be securely capped, which is often difficult as hardened glue makes it nearly impossible to get a good seal after use. Best bet is to buy in the smallest quantity possible for any given project and just accept the fact that you may have to thow some away from time to time. As for adhesion, I have never had a problem with old glue not adhering, though different brands have varying strengths. It used to be that any CA glue was designed to "hold a ton," but now some manufacturers are making the glue less aggressive so clumsy customers are less likely to glue their own fingers together. I bought an off-brand tube of CA from my local Walmart and it was virtually useless. Now I've gone back to Zap products. GPO

i get the 8 paks at the dollar store. i put it into an old zapagap container and in 2 weeks i have thick stuff again. then it goes in the fridge and holds up well. another e trademark cheap trick.

I've given up buying the useless thing. Too much "See how pretty my expensive kit is, and here's what I added from the aftermarket" stuff, not enough "See what I did to make this POS better, and here's how I did it!". But that's just me. And I'm reconsidering my regular newsagent delivery of Scale Auto, for about the same reasons.

RobG.

Way back when (when I was married, with a house and all that BS) all I could afford to buy was the el-cheapo cyano. It used to go off something chronic. Now that I'm on my own, I use Zap. Have been for a couple of years. The original 'thin' formula bottle (it was a BIG bottle!) I bought is still liquid. Never been in a fridge. I give the nozzle a wipe with acetone every once in a while to keep it clean. The stuff 'seems' to stick better than the no-name crud too. But that could just be me. (c:

RobG

Ah yes, also known for awhile as "Die-cast Enthusistss' Journal". They've sort of improved lately but they have a long way to go to get anywhere near where it was pre-Kalmbach.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Amen, brother.

RobG

If you really want to get the maximim life out of the larger bottles you can try the following trick:

Get some "Extend-It" aerosol. It is used by resin makers to remove moist air from resin bottles, therefore prolonging the resin's life.

Or, get some of the "Dust-off: aerosol cans. Those are used to blow dust off lenses or other sensitive equipment. You can buy that stuff in Office Supply shops. They aren't really filled with compressed air - they are made up of a chemical similar to the "Extend-it" spray. And they are cheaper.

Now, everytime you open the glue bottle, pour out as much as you'll use in this session and then make sure the bottle neck and the cap are clean. Before closing it, gently spray the "Extend-it" or "Dust-off" spray into the bottle. The gas is heavier than air so it will displace the moist air in the bottle. Then cap it tightly until next use.

Be very careful spraying the gas into the bottle. If you do it too strong, the glue will spray out, covering you and everything around you!

But, doing this everytime will greatly prolong the life of your glue. Peteski

No, air at well below zero still holds water vapor. Water vapor works differently than liquid water. Vapor must condense out on condensation nuclei to freeze. Here in Minnesota we get lots of below zero (fahrenheit, not just centigrade) temperatures. The ABSOLUTE humidity is lower than in higher temp air, but relative humidity range is similar to higher temps. We still get a lot of snow when temp is way below zero C.

Bottom line is, absolute humidity in fridge or freezer is indeed less than in workshop air, but as long as you have cap on, so what. Temp at workbench is what counts, as that is where water gets in.