SGibson

My Feedback: (2)

Back in the days when there weren't any ARFs and true modelers built wood kits or cut the own parts from carefully selected balsa, were you an Ambroid modeler or a Testors kwik dry glue guy? I always used Ambroid. I was told it remained somewhat flexible while Testors kwik dry was brittle. I have to admit, waiting for the Ambroid to dry on a humid day was like watching a slow clock.

Augie11

It was Ambroid for me back in the day. Couldn't beat the color and the smell! Believe it or not they still carry it in my LHS.

foodstick

I was sig aliphatic glue builder, And I am still missing the PICA fast drying white glue !

jwfly

My Feedback: (2)

I used Ambroid...testers in the green tube...and SIGMENT made by SIG

gene6029

My father used to build cabinets for people for extra cash & he used Elmers white glue on them, so i had an endless supply of it. I cant believe i ever got anything built with it as slow as it dries!!! I cant build today with CA without useing accellerator....Gene

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

I used both during the fifties whichever the local hobby shop happened to carry at the time also for a period during the sixties I spent some time in Germany and used UHU Hart which I think was Graupner it also was a wood cellulose glue as the others with the same need to double glue critical joints and subject to the same ultimate transformation to excessive brittleness and ultimate failure.

I understand The wood celullose glues were a by product of paper production somehow. For my occassional nostalgia project the glue is one area I have no desire to ever go back to. I rather think the glue is a great example of where the 'Good old days' were just not all that good.

John[8D]

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

I still use Ambroid and Sig-ment glue when I want to join sheets of balsa for wing skins because it sands so well. The glue I really miss is Hobbypoxy II, and am still trying to find a good substitute.

spaceworm

Cellulose film dissolved in acetone

When I can't find any old film, I use aliphatic or CA, or epoxy where extra strength is needed.

jaymen

Ambroid, then there was the Testors green, and Testors olive green extra-fast drying which was thicker. I also used to use Duco cement, it was really thin like Ambroid. They did not have Sigment out here until later, but now it and Testors are all you can get.
I like Testors for fixing rips in tissue, it's nice and clear and does not leave a yellow streak on the finish like Ambroid.

Some kits came with Comet cement, I remember it came with an eye screw for a stopper.

My real success with these glues came when I built my first Carl Goldberg kit and discovered pre-gluing... doing that took more time, but the parts held together much better.

White glues and aliphatics are a pain: you will sand all the balsa away long befopre you even put a nick in the glue, I do not like them at all for that reason. Plus, if they get wet, they fall apart.

Avaiojet

I just pulled a wing out of storage that I built 50 years ago. Yup, with Ambroid. Yes, parts were falling off.

After I removed the dust, I reglued each and every piece with CA and thick CA. I also repaired the broken pieces and added wood blocks for gear. Epoxied them.

The thing is starting to take shape. I'm using it for a CL design I'm working on.

Good old Ambroid, holding on for 50 years!

safeTwire

My Feedback: (2)

Ambroid and Testers user! Still use Ambroid! Mix a puddle of Ambroid with a scoop of Microballoon's for a light weight filler!

Andy R Bush

My Feedback: (2)

I used to live in the UK and we had balsa cement, I have no idea what chemicals it had in it but they were a knock out when you breathed them in. No one said we were not supposed to do that. For hardwoods and ply we used (I think cascamite) which was a powder you mixed with water and after a day or two it set like concrete but would hold fast for decades. There was some other stuff you had to heat up on your mums cooker and the assumption was that anything you had to heat up, had to be the best glue.
It was amazing when super glue came out. You knew if your pals were building because they went around with white finger tips from sticking to the balsa and a semi permanant sort of runny nose from the breathing the fumes.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Petrified wood cellulose derived cement and dope as packaged with my 1936 Stanzel Sky Shark G-Line kit. G-line was a form of a single line whip with an eight foot bamboo pole and thirty feet of line and of course a struggling class B or C engine.

This airplane and cements predates my entry into the hobby/sport in 1954 by eighteen years[8D]

John

spaceworm

Likely the "heady" fumes were MEK or acetone. The powder mixed with water was casein glue derived from milk protein. The glue you had to heat was made from animal (hide glue) or bones. I used all of the back in the day, but only the balsa cement for modeling. Later the CAs came out, with the first I knew about being Eastman 910, which was for industrial use and very expensive. Also later were the epoxies and aliphatics, and the urethanes.

I owe the loss of more than a few grey cells to the fumes form the solvent type glues and the polyurethane paints, which were only later recognized as being hazardous to your health.[]

Richard/"Always on, slightly off"

Stickbuilder

We used to melt an old toothbrush handle with acetone and use that to glue our Comet kits and Megow kits together. We either didn't have the dime for the Ambroid or Duco cement, or we were too far from the Hobby Shop to be able to get it.

Bill, Waco Brother #1

ARUP

Ambroid, Sigment and Duco. I remember the powdered glue that came in some kits that was to be mixed with water, too! I still use the Ambroid and Duco for planking. Planking a Globe Swift, presently. Nothing sands better! I use yellow wood glue for just about everything else.