RE: favorite glues?
I'm extreamly sensitive to fumes but other than eye irataion when the CA kicks, I haven't had a problem with it. I now use a big floor fan on low behind my chair and that circulation seems to solve the eye issue.
On epoxies, in my previous life as a jeweler, I used a lot of epoxies for stone work. I specialized in opals and opal inlays. There is a lot of different thoughts, but here is what I found hardened best and held best. Note in stone work, a very hard set is required as it will be sanded down, sometimes taking some stone and some gold, and the polished. The best I found was Uhu from Germany. It was a 30 minute set, but could be accelerated with heat and also by increasing the hardner. It dried to a very pale yellow and in the thin applications we used, it was totaly transparrent. One of the more robust epoxies I used was Epoxy 220 and Epoxy 330 by Hughes. The 220 is water clear, and the 330 is a pale yellow. The 330 by it's specs has a better hold, but in practice, I saw no difference. Again cure time could be accelerated with heat. I used the little 1oz tubes and if unopened, they would last forever. I just opoened a tube set last week that had been in my store stock for a couple years and I closed the store seven years ago. Nine years and counting. It is still very functional.
For 5 minute jobs, I use Devcon 5 minute in the small 1 oz tubes. It kicks a little faster than I like some times, but it has near the holding power of the Epoxy 330, in fact I would be hard pressed to tell the difference if I didn't have to polish out a joint.
Not all the 5 minute stuff is good though. I recently tried some Loctite 5 minute and it didn't hold well at all. I was using it for holding stones while faceting them, so there was a very small glue joint with some amount of stress. It was just to flexable and allowed the stone to shift some. The Devcon doesn't have that problem and I have used it for setting firewalls and landing gear mounts with good results, even on repairs where I was fighting some fuel residue. If I have a small enough job that I can be sure of completing the setup before the epoxy starts to kick, I use the 5 minute. For more complex jobs, the Epoxy 330 or 220 is used. In most cased, I place a desk lamp with a 100 watt bulb pointed at the joint at a distance of around 6". The Devcon will be fully cured in 30 minutes, while the 330 or 220 will still be tacky after an hour, but by next morning, it is glassy hard.
One of the main things to consider when using epoxy is to make sure both sides of the joint are wet before clamping together. Especially in wood. This removes any air bubbles and gives a very good joint.
Again, just my 2 cents worth.
Don