Why won'y CA glue stick

[Greg Law]

I have been having a nightmare of a time trying to glue my EZline rigging to my He 51. It took a whole day and 2/3 of a bottle of CA glue to fix eight rigging lines.

The glue just refused to hold. Also had trouble with the wing struts. This morning I spent 15 minutes trying to glue the end of one line which had no tension on it.

In the end I had to give up and walk away. Sometimes one would glue straight away, but most fought me all the way and ended in a real CA mess. So what am I doing wrong? 

[Gorby]

Are you using CA accelerator? 

[Greg Law]

I have tried that, but it turned the glue white and brittle. It also didn't work all the time.

[Rob G]

Is it a cheap brand of glue ie one from a dollar shop? Sometimes they seem to be missing something from the mixture and just won't work. I stick to known brands (heh, pun) Loctite, Selleys etc, I've even used UHU in the 3 pack of 1ml tubes from Woollies and have almost never had an issue.

 

If it's a good brand, then how dry is the air there right now? (Very crudely), cyanoacrylates need moisture to cure and won't set up without some humidity in the air, and in that situation accelerator may just be making it ugly.

 

Is the bottle old, or has it been open for a long while? That'll mess things up at times too. You may have only just bought it, but it may have been on the shop shelf for a while.

 

Apart from that... I'm out of clues. If it's a good brand, newly opened and you have the receipt (!), take it back and get it changed, look for a different batch number if you can, just in case it's a duff batch; it does happen.

[Graham Boak]

Wilko do a nice line in superglues. with or without a brush in the cap.  Not a large quantity but I tend to find the bigger products in model shops dry up or become unusable long before they near empty.

[stevehnz]

Greg, I buy the Loctite SG gel from the local Pak & Save & have never had any issues with it, I like that it gives some working time but still only takes a minute or so to set.

Steve.

[gamevender]

I find that superglue would much rather stick to things not intended, such as fingers, tweezers, etc, than the parts intended. 

 

Seriously, it may be that the surfaces of the things to be glued are contaminated with something. Almost anything will get in the way of superglue. Superglue sets when it is exposed to the moisture in the atmosphere. Sometimes if I have a stubborn part, I'll apply the glue to it and then gently exhale (not blow) on it like you would to warm your hands before i put it in place. It guess the moisture in my breath sort of jump starts the setting because after holding it for a bit in the proper location, it will stay in place. Does not work with larger amounts of glue, but well with small parts, especially PE stuff. 

[Greg Law]

I'm using Zap CA this brand has been used in modeling for a long time. I use the thin quick set type. We have dried out here lately, so I was wondering if that could be it. I do use the breathing thing as well. The glue is new. The only real issue I have is my tremor which makes it hard to hold things still.

[Wonky Donkey]

Hey Greg,

 

I've had the same bother - in my experience it's random as to whether the EZline "bites" or not.  Sometimes it grabs within the prescribed setting time of the glue, sometimes it never does (result = gluey, curled up mess of EZline). I have concluded it's the line and not the glue. There's a few references to that online if you poke about enough. Uschi van der Rosten line gives more consistent results but I find it much harder to work with.

 

My solution is thus:

 - apply tiny bit of chosen glue to the area on the model you want the line fixed to. Make sure the contact point is clean so the glue doesn't go off "by itself".

 - apply small amount of accelerator to the end of the line you are attaching (I dip a cocktail stick in the accelerator and touch that on the end of the line).

 - applpy line to glued area of model.

 - smug smile.

 

Never failed yet, though you have to commit to your placement of the line as you only get a second or two to react if you "miss" your spot. It will still turn the glue white (that's a chemical reaction in the glue) but if you've applied the tiniest amount possible (I use the point of a pin), it's barely visible (and can be touched up later with paint if absolutely necessary)

 

As it happens, I continue to have the same bother applying small PE parts to models. I suspect there just isn't enough surface contact area to set the glue off (resulting in the inevitible gluing together of the tweezers or my fingers...). 🙂 

 

Mick..