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  #1  
Old 10-26-2011, 02:42 PM
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Default Care and feeding of Cyano Acrylate adhesive

If you are unfamiliar with the storage requirements of CA there is a trick to extending the shelf life of a sealed bottle. I most comonly use the Pacer Zap thin product due to the instant set and the rapid wick of the carrier into parts. As with all prodcuts there is a shelf life - this is most easily seen as a discoloration of the product in the bottle; or more correctly a color change from clear to pale yellow. The age issue is exhibited in slow cure of the product and subsequently a weak bond. To extend the life of the product you can store it in the refrigerator, or indeed the freezer. The caveat being that the product needs to be at room temperature. To this point (I think I got this tip about 20 years ago) I have never had a problem with the adhesive reconstituting itself to room remperature adhesive qualities.

I usually buy three bottles or so at a time and replensish when there is one still frozen. Given a 15% increase in the bottle price over the last six months I can extend the expenditure at least a little..
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Old 10-26-2011, 08:51 PM
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I use far less CA now than I did a few years ago. Back then I could easily finish off a 2 oz. bottle of BSI Insta-Cure without ever doing anything special to keep it fresh. Now I just buy 1 oz. bottles (and thinking of switching to 1/2 oz.) and use it mainly to strengthen the ends of body tubes and motor tubes.
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Old 10-26-2011, 08:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark II
I use far less CA now than I did a few years ago. Back then I could easily finish off a 2 oz. bottle of BSI Insta-Cure without ever doing anything special to keep it fresh. Now I just buy 1 oz. bottles (and thinking of switching to 1/2 oz.) and use it mainly to strengthen the ends of body tubes and motor tubes.
What brand(s)/type(s) do you use for strengthening tube ends? I've used thin films of white glue with OK results, but CA would be stronger and would soak in better, using the tubes' fibers to good advantage (like glass/carbon/kevlar fiber soaked in epoxy).
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Old 10-26-2011, 09:36 PM
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I use "Instant Krazy Glue, Home and Office Brush on", made by Elmer's products. It comes in a small 5g jar with a brush in the lid. When it's empty, I figure I'll just buy some thin stuff and pour it in the jar.
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Old 10-26-2011, 09:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
What brand(s)/type(s) do you use for strengthening tube ends? I've used thin films of white glue with OK results, but CA would be stronger and would soak in better, using the tubes' fibers to good advantage (like glass/carbon/kevlar fiber soaked in epoxy).
I use BSI Insta-Cure (blue label) for that. It is available at most hobby shops, usually with the shop's label covering the BSI logo. (This is by arrangement.) Insta-Cure is equivalent to "water-thin" or "fast cure" or "5 second cure" cyanoacrylate. It is the type that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of CA.

The treatment causes the material to swell a bit and it really roughens up the surface, so sanding is almost always needed to restore the correct fit of the nose cone or payload section shoulder. The good thing is that soaking paper in CA makes it sandable without shredding, and the sanded tube is usually much smoother afterward than it was prior to the treatment. I use it on the inside surfaces of tube fins for that very reason (and also to strengthen them). The inside of a paper tube, which is not intended to be visible, is never finished as nicely as the outside. Soaking the inner walls of things like ramjet tubes and tube fins with CA and sanding them down makes it much easier to give them a nice paint job. I fill the spirals first with thinned Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler and sand them down first before applying the CA, and I usually need to repeat the "CA soak plus sand" process two or three times to get the smoothness that I want.

I have also made use of the material swelling effect on a few occasions by applying CA to the inside tops of tubes to tighten the fit of loose nose cones. It's hard to predict the amount of swelling that will occur, though, and the technique doesn't always work that well. Two or three soaks, with sanding in between, is often needed in order to get the desired results.

You have to be careful when you soak a tube surface with thin CA because the stuff tends to run all over the place (and it's fast!) and because even instant curing CA takes appreciably longer to cure when it is spread thick like that. Anything that touches the surface is going to bond instantly to it until all of the CA in the paper is cured, which can take as long as 10 minutes. The other caution is that CA's "vapor effect" (part of the curing process) is much more noticeable when large quantities of it are used. The vapors are not dangerous at that level but they are extremely irritating to any mucous membranes, like those that line the inside of your nose. Don't hover over your work while the CA is curing!


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Old 10-26-2011, 10:33 PM
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I thank you both very much for your replies! I have used the BSI CA before for other applications (I'd forgotten the name of it).
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Old 10-26-2011, 11:44 PM
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I agree with Mark II about body tube end treatments and building up the inside surface for a better nose cone fit.

For a while I was using a Teflon tip to apply the CA around the body tube end, but drips can occur and can run down the inside of the body tube.

Now I place a drop on the back of a used, scrap piece of 400 grit sandpaper. 400 grit sandpaper is water tight and the CA will stay as a rounded drop on the surface for quite a while without drying.
A cotton swab (or Q-tip) is dipped in the CA and the swab is used as a brush to apply the CA around the inside of the body tube end.

I find I have much more control using the Q-tip like a brush to apply the CA.
The ring of CA is more uniform and even now.
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Old 10-27-2011, 12:56 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hcmbanjo
I agree with Mark II about body tube end treatments and building up the inside surface for a better nose cone fit.

For a while I was using a Teflon tip to apply the CA around the body tube end, but drips can occur and can run down the inside of the body tube.


That is why I bought the Brush in the bottle one. Prior to that, I would pour out some CA into an empty jar lid and stand the BT up in it and let the CA wick up into the tube.

I would have to wait till I had a bunch of BTs to treat or I would end up wasting CA.

Now the brush is right in the cap. I take it out, sptead it around the end of the tube I want to treat and viola! the brush goes back in the bottle.

I also use it to strengthen BTs were I have had to take a fin off and it tore off the top layer of the BT.
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Old 10-27-2011, 07:40 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
What brand(s)/type(s) do you use for strengthening tube ends? I've used thin films of white glue with OK results, but CA would be stronger and would soak in better, using the tubes' fibers to good advantage (like glass/carbon/kevlar fiber soaked in epoxy).


Pink bottle of "ultra thin" CA from Hobby Lobby works terrific for this... I use it for "hardening" balsa cones and transitions as well... works great!

You need the "ultra thin" stuff so that it can soak in... surprising how much CA balsa can just "drink in" when you're hardening cones...

Sanding the tube ends is a must to get a good fit.

If you have a loose balsa nosecone, soaking a little ultra-thin CA into the shoulder and letting it dry COMPLETELY will increase the diameter just enough that you usually end up with a 'good as new" fit...

Basically that's all I use the stuff for... for actual construction I MUCH prefer white and yellow glues...

Later! OL JR
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Old 10-27-2011, 10:43 AM
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I learned the trick about keeping CA in the refrigerator years ago at one of the effects shops I worked in. The owner would buy quart bottles of the Bob Smith stuff, and we'd refill our 1 or 2 ounce bottles from his stash. I've gotten the family at the house used to heading for the dorm fridge in the basement for my bottles there. i have some down there that's about 4 years old that's still fresh, whereas the bottle in my range box hit rock hard stage in about a year....
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