OK, just brought home a Hobbico field box that I'm trying to assemble. The instructions call for medium-thick CA glue. The guy at the hobby shop sold me ZAP-A-GAP CA+ to do the job. I apply a liberal line of glue in a seam as per instructions... the bottle of glue said it sets in 10 seconds... I hold it in place for at least 30... boards fall apart. Hmm... I try again, apply even more glue this time and hold for a minute... same results.

What's the story?

CheezyD,

Thick CA takes a lot longer to set than the bottle usually says. I would recommend that you use plain old carpenter's wood glue for your field box (the yellow Elmer's works great). If you want to use the CA, clamp or tape the joints together for at least an hour. Also you may not get a strong joint using CA with this type of wood because of the coarsness of the grain. It may soak up too much of the CA before it fully cures. Good luck.

In addition to what PMW said, you could also use Ambriod glue. It sets relatively quickly and has very good strength.

Mike

Thanks for the advice guys. I've got wood glue but no clamps so I can't work on it tonight.

Never even heard of Ambroid glue??

Something else you can do is to get a bottle of Accelerator. Put a drop on the CA and it sets instantly.

I called the hobby shop and they said I need some "Zip Kicker" to put on the glue to force it to set up. Guess I'll give that a try...

Also, your response of "add more glue" makes it worse. With CA, there really is such a thing as "to much", and the more glue present, the longer it will take to set. Next time, when the board fall apart, try quickly wiping some glue off, then sticking the parts back together, it might surprise you.

Oh, yeah, like MinnFlyer said, some kicker would fix you right up as well. Be careful though, large amounts of CA kicked off will generate a lot of heat (not enough to set fire to the wood though), and will cause the CA to give off a bunch of nasty fumes in a hurry. (the fumes are always there with CA, but the kicker makes them all go RIGHT NOW, so it's easier to get a face full). Oh, and too much kicker and too much glue can cause a white "popcorn" bubbly, hard as a rock, mess to appear along the seams that is nearly impossible to get off. Not usually a problem, but it could prevent a drawer from going inside a slot for it for example.

For putting together a field box, I'd use slow setting epoxy. Field boxes take all kinds of abuse, and get soaked in fuel eventually, so something that will hold up over the years is a good thing. I think CA is too brittle. I wonder if Goop would work well on a field box, maybe too flexible. Polyurathan glues like probond are amazingly strong on wood, but you have to clamp things together, and it takes a while to set.

You will find it hard to beat any of the alphatic resin (carpenters) glues. Makes very strong joints and durable over time. The joints do need to be clamped while curing for max strength though. Titebond II is also esentially waterproof.

Some #64 rubberbands might fit around it tight enough since you don't have clamps

Kerry

Where there's a will, there's a way

Well I got home with a bottle of Great Planes Thick CA and a bottle of Zap Kicker. Talk about a difference... you get about a half second to get the piece in place before this stuff sets up... and it better be in the right place when you stick it on there.

So far so good...

Then I come to the drawer assembly... no drawer bottom in the box. Dang it. Turns out no top shelf either. So much for making any real progress getting this field box together again tonight.

Thanks a bunch Hobbico...

Back to the hobby shop I go again tomorrow to raid one of their other Hobbico boxes on the shelf... they should let me do that, right?

CA is not the ideal glue for a field box (and a LOT of other things), it's brittle, expencive, cures too quick for a good join (in most timbers) etc, etc.
i'd stick with carpenters glue for the box and save the CA for balsa (or coro) and field repaires.

The box's instructions called for CA glue but point taken. I used some wood screws to reinforce the box.

Also a thumb's up for Big Boys Toys in Albuquerque... I called them about my missing pieces from the field box kit. They told me to come on down and they would raid the pieces from another kit they had there and would have the factory replace theirs.

You gotta love a good LHS. I gotta admit to mail ordering some stuff, but buying locally has it's advantages.