I do not know the difference. What are the pros / cons. of these?

If you're interested in a bit of reading, go to the www.greatplanes.com, and download the manual for the PT-40 kit. In the first couple of pages they explain the different uses for CA and Epoxy glue, and even detail how to build a workshop table using a door bought from a hardware store. For a complete beginner, you might want to look through some of the beginner websites that exist for a quick tour of what's what in the R/C world. This is what I've done to a great extent. I've always been interested, and finally my dream of owning an r/c plane is coming true, so I've been searching the web and buying magazines. It's really amazing what you can learn in a very short while.

www.easyrc.com is a beginner website you can start with (hmm, having trouble accessing their page about glues and tools, but anyway, there are plenty of other websites out there).

Like I said, just searching the web for beginner sites is the easiest thing to do.

thanks for the input!

When building structures with bends in the wood such as fuselages and sheeted wings, CA's have made construction much easier. What would before require lots of careful clamping and drying time with an alphatic resin or epoxy can now be done in a couple of minutes with minimal clamping and often by just holding the parts in position for a minute or so.

Thin CA sets very fast and can be hard to work with as things have to be positioned perfectly the first time. Medium CA is good for all round use and in my opinion can provide a better bond and is more tolerate of slight gaps. The slower set time also makes positioning things a little easier.

I'll use CA for most joints and reserve epoxy only for very critical joints such as joining wing panels, attaching fire walls etc. Having said that, using CA over a nylon, polyester or fiberglass cloth can also produce a very fast and very strong joint. One wrap of a 1 inch light weight fiber glass cloth around a center section joint and then coated with CA makes a very strong joint and spreads the load a bit more than either a plain CA or epoxied joint.

Both CA and Epoxy can also be used with a filler material such as micro ballons to make fillets, but I prefer mixing it with an alphatic resin as sanding is normally easier. CA can be harder to sand, particularly when using a softer balsa, so at times I will still use an alpatic resin if building a wing on a board as clamping and drying time are not issues, but the ability to easily get a smooth, easy to sand surface is.

An FYI... you asked about CA and epoxy -- and certainly those are the most popular adhesives around, but I wanted to stress that there are other options.

Personally, edge joining sheet invisibly and tacking things to hold their alignment while I work on them are about the only places that I use CA. Places where I'm joining big things and warping or moisture and chemical infiltration are potential problems (like firewalls and SOME doublers) are the only places I use epoxies.

Other than that I go with yellow wood glue because it doesn't have nasty fumes or cause long range health questions. It's also way less expensive than the other adhesive types and forms joints that are stronger than the surrounding wood. Like epoxies, it doesn't require the precision demanded by CA glue, it retains flexibility after it's cured.

Another option is the relatively new urethane glues (e.g. Gorilla Glue). These seem to be really great adhesives, better than any of the others mentioned for making a secure joint between imperfectly matched parts. On the other hand, they're not cheap and they do carry long term health implications that will still take years to quantify.

Other than that, there's still the solvent type glues that I really don't think are used very much anymore: Ambroid, SIGment, etc. They're said to be way easier to sand than the other types, but that would make sense because they're more brittle than the others.

And I think that's about all of the major types in use at this point.

I MOSTLY use titebond glue. C A is too smelly and you can't go arround with you fingers stuck together
all the time. you cant get it off your fingers either. Epoxy is great, because it fills gaps , and it washes off your hands with lac thinner or acetone. Tite bond is the way to go , because it is water based, AND SANDS SOMEWHAT. C A WILL NOT SAND. EPOXY also is tough to sand. In critical areas AND areas that need to be fuel proof i ALWAYS use Epoxy.


have a goody


Dan

As you can see above... there's a LOT of considerations in choosing which glue and where to use it.

CA is great for things that are hard to hold in alignment as the glue sets. And that's the only place i use it. Its expensive, an not wrth the cost for the speed gain in other locations.

CA is NOT very good for joining "Lite Ply." It wicks through the center layer too much. Yellow glue is far superior at giveing a good joint with minimal weight. ( and most lite ply box fuselages can be assembled just as fast using yellow glue as with CA... just let them sit a couple of hours after you get them assembled.)

Epoxy is the ONLY correct glue for installing firewalls in wooden structures. Vibration and fuel will cause other glues to fail, or at least crack, leading to fuel seeping in and causing serious problems. (2 hour epoxy should be painted over the entire firewall and inside wooden cowls, often with lite fiberglass to add strength.)

Then there's the new Polyurethane glues... GREAT for replacing epoxy in some areas. (but not for firewalls)

You can get a lighter structure with amazing strength by learning what glue to use where. Lighter planes fly better.

Epoxy reaction,

I merrily used epoxy several times, spilling it on my legs, getting it on my fingers, etc... Then, all of a sudden, I developed a nasty reaction to epoxy on my skin. Looked a lot like a chemical burn (which I guess it was). Anyway, I don't think this is uncommon and now I use long pants and rubber gloves WHENEVER I get out the epoxy.

GB

Titebond / Yellow glue? Is this the same thing a carpenters wood glue?

Yes, Titebond and Elmer's "Carpenter's" are 2 brands of the yellow wood glues. The white Elmers is an OK substitute in most cases... the yellow is a bit stronger and has a neat tendancy to pull parts together tighter as it dries.