Top Tip: Super glue activator

[alone_withmyaxe]

Is it just me...

I have been gluing some old metal models together, and usually I spend an age holding the 2 pieces together and waiting. Well today I accidentally discovered that if you wet one piece and put glue on the other the glue goes off really quickly.

I have now tried it a few times, I am using a wet cotton bub to apply the water too one surface and gluing the other and it seems to go off in seconds and hold as if, well, superglued!!

Is this some deep dark secret or am I the last to know?

Either way I am happy to have found out so I thought I would share. Right back to gluing now with less swearing and finger cramp!
 

[Westfalia Chris]

It does indeed speed up the process, and I have been using it occasionally on pieces which are very small and do not bear any load (non-exposed antennae).

The problem, however, is that the bond is much weaker than if you leave the glue to cure normally, as it will be metal/glue/water-glue/glue/metal instead of metal/glue/metal. Therefore, it isn't really suitable for heavy, load-bearing joints, or extremities like stretched arms or swords, as the risk of it shearing off the glue joint is very high.

Speaking from years of experience on that, I must strongly suggest you use if only for the mentioned very small, non-critical joints, if at all, and otherwise use the proper way of waiting, OR use a proper chemical accelerator, which does indeed reduce CA curing times AND produces a strong bond.

[Vonkluge]

Another very valuable tool in this picture is the little bottle with a "blunt" needle coming out of the top. This is a CA glue accelerator applicator bottle. CA glue can use an accelerator to instantly "set" the glue, very handy when hold two tiny parts. Most accelerators come in a spray bottle that spray way to much all over your model sometime ruining  the finish, paint, and just wasteful. This bottle puts one tiny drop right where you want it! I got mine at a local craft store.

As far as CA glues go here is some info you may or may not know. The reason CA glues are accelerated by moisture is that they were originally developed for use in Vietnam (who says nothing good came out of that war!) to quickly/temporarily close wounds! Westphalia Chris is correct in his stating that the bond you get will be much weaker using water to "cure" it. The faster any CA sets the weaker the bond. Even the Accelerator specifically produced for CA glues do not produce as strong a bond as a bond left to dry entirely on its own. If you want try putting a little more CA on the accelerated glue after it has set to strengthen it.

In the states we have something called JB Weld a two part epoxy that is very very strong, thick and easy to work with. Get the quick set (5-mins) and use for those heavy bonds. I used this for my 2 pound Reaper T-Rex!

[General]

I was reading a book... 'the history of glue' - I couldn't put it down.
Tim Vine 

[Vonkluge]

Wow Tim I have been meaning to read that too   but still trying to finish the 3 volume set on the "Structural quality of cereal boxes"

Bill

[Jules]

I believe the key is the absences of air.  If you spill CA on your hands run cold water across them and the CA sets (saved me glue my hands to lots of things in the past). I wonder if you plunge the model under water if you would get a quick set on the edge and interior of the join would cure normally. What would happen if you put the model in a vacuum?

[McYellowbelly]

Baking soda also works as an accelerator and filler
But be warned, once it is cured, it is hard.
I have polished a needle file in the past trying to file the resultant lump!

[Vonkluge]

I'm fairly certain the "absence of air" is not the reason CA glues cure, if so then you would have lots of hard bottles of glue around. If you hit a large puddle of CA glue with accelerator you will find that the out side forms a hard shell and the inside may remain un-cured for quite awhile because it is no longer exposed to air.

By the way buy the best CA glue you can afford because the better stuff produced for the "hobby" industry is FAR superior than the crap you get at the market. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish! Spending time buying and painting a figure or model and using cheap glue causing an piece to fall of is not worth it!

[Rob_bresnen]

Is your life so busy that you can't wait ten seconds for superglue to dry? 

[Gandalf]

Superglue (methyl cyanocrylate) needs moisture from the atmosphere (or your skin) to set.  It won't set in a dry, airless environment which is why it can seem to take forever to go off.  Dipping one part of the piece in water will accelerate the setting process.

There is a rumour that superglue was developed for field medics in Vietnam to close wounds instead of stitches.  It is certainly used for that in modern Accident and Emergency units because it sticks skin together really well.

[McYellowbelly]

There is a rumour that superglue was developed for field medics in Vietnam to close wounds instead of stitches.  It is certainly used for that in modern Accident and Emergency units because it stick skin together really well.

Vietnam was superglue's first major use, but it was developed during WW2.
Not for woulds, but for making reflector gunsights.
Apparently it cured too quick so was shelved