Superglue and activators

[Simon Cornes]

Like most of us I've used CA glues for years but I'm after some advice/opinion please.

 

I have a Wingnut biplane to repair (bought via Ebay in that state) - the top wing has been knocked off and all the struts detached but the EZ line rigging is still in place. My idea was to use CA glue to re-attach the centre section struts and to then reattach the interplane struts. The model is in a rigging jig to get the correct height and rake for the top wing. 

 

I'm using Zap medium. I've had it for a few years and have been using a CA gel most recently so the Zap doesn't come out very often. It normally lives in the fridge. I had run out of kicker/accelerator so I went to my local model store - eModels - with my bottle of Zap as I though it was quite runny but I compared it with a new bottle and it was just as runny! I bought a bottle of Zap accelerator and went home. I then spent all afternoon trying to attach 2 struts. I gave up when I felt that the frustration was overcoming my efforts but I can't understand why the accelerator/kicker/activator wasn't really making the CA go off any quicker. Am I doing something wrong?

 

I've put the 'job' to one side until I can summon up the patience to have another go!

 

Any advice/opinion please?

 

Thanks

 

Simon

[Space Ranger]

CA glue can go bad.

[Simon Cornes]

3 hours ago, Space Ranger said:

CA glue can go bad.

So maybe a new bottle of Zap Medium is the answer?

[Kev The Modeller]

I had Zap, pink, green and yellow CA.  I never used the first 2 just the yellow, until it wouldn't set even with accelerator, I opened the other 2 they too wouldn't set.  They had all gone off,  absolutely no cling whatsoever, I then discovered CA has a shelf life of approximately 18 - 24 months.  They were less then a year old (to me) but obviously been sitting on the sellers shelf and there no date info on the bottles.

 

Wasted about £20.  I now just but the little tubes of gel as and when saves wasting anymore money.     

[AntPhillips]

I used to use Zap, but had a couple of bottles (1 Gel type and 1 medium) set solid in the bottle, these days I just buy smaller tubes of Loctite medium from my local B&M and I've also using Lidl's own brand gel type (can't recall its name right now, but it's of German origin), I'm getting good mileage out of both.

[ckw]

I've found the various types of Gorilla glue very effective - and seem to last well in the bottle. However I've never used an accelerator on them.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[Simon Cornes]

Guys

Thanks for the advice and opinion. I went to buy a bottle of Zap Green from eModels and, blow me, they'd sold out - had it on Monday - except for the 'big' bottle for about £12 which I thought was pointless as, as has been said, it normally goes solid before you've used it all up! I bought a bottle of the Javis green for about £3.50 and its much better although the bottle is quite hard plastic which doesn't squeeze like Zap. Unfortunately the job Ive bought out for is driving me crazy - a Wingnut biplane. I am at the point now where I think all the rigging has to come off because the tension in it is just fighting me and things are starting to break so I have walked away from it - I've never thrown a model out of the window but this is getting close!