Any Cure for the CA Frosties?

[Didymus]

Aside from using something else, is there any way to cure the white frosting around joints glued with cyanoacrylate (aka superglue)?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't like weak white glue for small joints. Barge-type contact cements are stringy and hard to handle. The only nifty alternative I've found is glass glue, but it won't start curing until it's exposed to ultraviolet light, which is hard to find late at night where I live. And it's not nearly as strong as CA.

I've left CA for several days so it can out-gas before I paint over or near the joint, but the white stuff still appears. Is there some kind of sealer or something that will prevent the CA frosties?

Didy

[Lownslow]

Originally Posted by Didymus

Aside from using something else, is there any way to cure the white frosting around joints glued with cyanoacrylate (aka superglue)?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't like weak white glue for small joints. Barge-type contact cements are stringy and hard to handle. The only nifty alternative I've found is glass glue, but it won't start curing until it's exposed to ultraviolet light, which is hard to find late at night where I live. And it's not nearly as strong as CA.

I've left CA for several days so it can out-gas before I paint over or near the joint, but the white stuff still appears. Is there some kind of sealer or something that will prevent the CA frosties?

Didy

epoxy

[cyberkid]

The frosties you mention is also know as CA hazing. What I do is glue the joint and spray air through my AB directly on the joint for about 2 or 3 minutes... this more or less takes care of the problem for me.

[jbain]

Have a look at this site and you will see that there are 12 different grades of
Instant Adhesives or cyanoacrylates made by this company, if you check out what the properties are for each different type, you will see that there are 3 that are LOW BLOOMING.
Any of these 3 will do the job with-out that white bloom showing up and spoiling the model.

OK, Loctite is a bit dearer than the Wal-mart crap, but it does exactly what it says it will do, you'se gets what's you'se pay's for, or, pay peanuts, get monkey crap..


http://www.loctite.com.au/int_henkel...id=19&layout=3

Looks like you got to hit, Browse catalouge, Catagory - loctite assembly solutions, Bonding - Instant Adhesives, then you are there.

[whitebiker]

I also read that that oil, cooking, baby oil etc, could reduce the minor cases by "covering it up"

[Didymus]

"Bloom." Much better.

Thanks for the link, jbain, and the directions. Loctite sounds like just the ticket - not only low bloom, but low odor! And in three viscosities. Now my problem is figuring out where to buy those special Loctite grades. Doesn't sound like Hm Depot is gonna do it, so maybe I can find it on line. Or ask my cool hardware store to order it.

I had forgotton, but now I remember some mention somewhere that low bloom CA can still produce bloom, so I'll combine it with Cyberkid's air blast technique.

Diddy

[jbain]

Loctite is available at any Engineering Supplier or Bearing Supplier as this is an industrial strength adhesive, some hardware store's stock this item as well.

Remember, you only get ,what you pay for.

[gtipwr]

I have used this stuff for years and it works like a champ. (http://centralhobbies.com/building_m.../sprgld00.html) It is basically a degassed version of their regular CA. It has no odor and therefore doesn't cloud clear parts. Most hobby shops carry it and apply a label above the name super gold. One thing you can do before appying some other glues is to polish the parts but don't remove the haze until after you glue the parts. I have not tried that but have heard it works

[Didymus]

Thanks for all the good advice.

I went ahead and ordered .10 oz. tubes of 403 (gap filling) and 460 (thin) Loctite CA from McMaster Carr at http://www.mcmaster.com. They are an industrial supplier that does a lot of small-quantity mail order business. The tubes cost $4.87 ea; seems high for such a tiny amount, so I'll reserve the Loctite for external joints where bloom would be visible.

You are right about getting what you pay for. It's worth a lot to have no-hassle glue that's strong and doesn't make a mess of my model.

Diddy

[jbain]

OK, now do yourself a favour when you recieve the Loctite, put it in the fridge and it will last for about a year, this is when the tube is NOT OPENED. After you DO open it and start to use it, when your finished with it for the day, put it back in the fridge again, leave it on the workbench and it's stuffed in about a fortnight. The cold slows down the rate that it can go hard and the opened tube can last for up to 3 months when you put it back in the fridge.

Choice is yours to make with what you do with the Loctite.

This works for ALL BRANDS OF SUPER-GLUES as well.

[cyberkid]

Originally Posted by jbain

OK, now do yourself a favour when you recieve the Loctite, put it in the fridge and it will last for about a year, this is when the tube is NOT OPENED. After you DO open it and start to use it, when your finished with it for the day, put it back in the fridge again, leave it on the workbench and it's stuffed in about a fortnight. The cold slows down the rate that it can go hard and the opened tube can last for up to 3 months when you put it back in the fridge.

Choice is yours to make with what you do with the Loctite.

This works for ALL BRANDS OF SUPER-GLUES as well.

eh...not true for me... I use Loctite Precision (no serial number on the bottle) for emergency cuts..I get cut a lot due to the nature of my work. I have had the same bottle for over a year now which I kept in the glove compartment of my truck.