I'd like to ask the veterans here for their build advice.

1)Aside from being careful, how do you keep from getting the CAall over your finger tips?

2) What do you do once it gets on your finger tips?

3)How do you deal with a gummed up / melted / clogged tip?

4)From lurking I've seen photos of builders using what appears to be a syringe applicator with a thin tip, any advice on where to get these?

On a side note, any recommendations on a good build text or two?

Thanks!
Tim

1) Being careful is the most important, keep the hole in the container as small as you can and still get the ca to flow. Keep your fingers out of the path of the ca as much as possible, that is difficult sometimes just be mindful of it.
2) Either acetone or sandpaper to remove it from your fingers. Sometimes i bite it off but annoys the wife.
3) I keep a small sealed container in the workshop partically filled with acetone and soak the glue tips to remove leftover ca or clogged tips. I have enough tips that i can rotate them, leaving one on the bottle and one in the acetone.
4) You can buy the small applicators or extra tips at most hobby stores.
Side notes:
I try to avoid using ca as much as possible. I prefer Titebond II for most building. CA certainly has its place.
I am sure some of the other guys will chime in with additional information.

Like you I seldom use CA and much prefer using Titebond or an equivalent like Elmer's, but have to be careful about warping if gluing large areas.

Karol

Gloves, but they just get glued together instead of body partz. <div>
</div><div>Get 1/2 oz. and 2 oz. or larger bottles of whatever CA you use. The big bottle goes in the fridge. When the small bottle is empty, half-fill it from the big bottle. </div><div>Ditto on the fine tips available at the LHS. Some vendors give a few away at shows like Toledo or WRAM, good for extras. I've reopened tips with a small drill. </div>

I have found using the BSI IC-GEL ca from hobbyKing makes things neater and easier to control the over use. The gel is thick and stays where put. I spread a little accelerator one on part (and let dry) with a q-tip and smear a little gel on the other part then put the two together.  I wipe the tip of the tube with a paper towel and re-cap it.   This stuff is great and the tube nozzel  stays free if you sqeuze the tube sides to suck air back into the tube before capping it.  This gel does not work well in places where you want to soak the balsa with ca; but where medium or thick ca is called for it is very good.

Use a lot of paper towel to wipe over the freshly glued joint, and keep your fingers out of the glue.

Good Luck! [8D]

Brian

I use my daughter's fingernail polish remover to get CA off my fingers. Works well<div>
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I use thin and medium CA exclusively when building airplanes, the more you use it the better you will get handling it. Now for those little mishaps; Home Depot and Lowe's sell acetone by the gallon, just keep a small jar filled with acetone to soak those fingers should you get some CA on them. By the way, a gallon will last for years if used only for this purpose.

Bob

I'm the only one that actually enjoys gluing body parts together? [&:]

Second, the more you use it the better you become at it.

I'm building a CG Piper Cub fuselage to replace the 17 year old broken one and this time I just used mid-CA to put it thogether, I will use Taidbond to complete the gluing on this one.

When using thin CA on tight-fitting joints, it's useful to sop up any excess with a Q-tip immediately after the application.

I really did mean to glue the plane to my hand so I wouldn't drop it on the floor.

There's nothing quite like absentmindedly picking up a tissue or paper towel with a glob of medium or thick CA on it, and having it 'cook off' on your fingers. By the time the heat hits, it's already stuck to you!  [X(]

With experience, you will get better at not getting ca glue on your fingers.
Iwould NOTuse acetone on your hands. your boddy can soak up acetone and cause health problems later.
It does not take long for CA to wear off body parts. When I epoxy and sometimes when I CA, I use cheap latex gloves.
My LHS sells long tips that fit on to CA bottles for about $0.25. After using the CA I will hold the CA bottle up and sqeeze the bottle a little to clear glue from the tip.
This usually works well. some times the tip gets gummed up any way. I just cut a small part off of the long tip.


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If you have a loose fitting joint you can push some baking soda into it and drop thin CA on it, must be thin CA med will not work!" watch out for the fumes

Yah, that is sure an intense 2 seconds isn't it!!! LOL

Bob

About as much fun as dropping an X-Acto on your leg or foot! Yeow!

X-acto knife?? done that been there, ouch!! I got me a nice clean cut on my leg the other day [:@] Now days if the knife it coming down the first thing to runaway are my legs, oh yeah I close my eyes too

Love the responses! Especially as I am typing with the band-aided index finger that got caught in the X-acto crossfire last night! I think my CA bottle is just to the point where I'd be better to start fresh with a new bottle because the tip is so crudded up its almost impossible to get any control of the glue comming out of the tip.

What is the difference between CA, Epoxy, and Tightbond? I like the CA because I am impatient and like being able to move on to the next step of a project without having to wait 2-24 hours for the glue to dry before moving on. Does Epoxy or Tightbond have a similar cure time? </p>

CA gets really hot especially with a little kicker on your finger-and ditto to the exacto knife-why do they keep making the handle round? I like playing hop scotch in front of my building board at midnite when trying to avoid the 3 foot knife drop.

Sometimes I use a combination of CA and carpenters's glue such as Titebond or Elmers, where the CA sets up quickly and provides the clamping force to hold the pieces being joined together while the glue dries.

Karol

Guys,

For the love of god, put one of those black paper clip thingies on the end of your exacto. No more rolling around or cuts!

CA is the very fastest adhesive to build with, hands down. There are going to be those that tell you it's fast to build with but epoxy, or Tightbond are much stronger, better, Bla, Bla, Bla, to build your airframes with. So when you hear that line; just know that it is so not true and you can bet they are in most cases repeating only what they have heard or read from someone else and are not really qualified to be making any statement on the subject at all.

Bob

Just a quick comment about soaking the CA tips in Acetone. I do that too, but when you take them out, make sure that you get ALL the Acetone out of the inside before you put it on the bottle. If there are traces of acetone in that tip and it gets into the glue, you can spoil the CA.

I also squeeze out a little air from the container first so that, once I put down the glue, I can suck what's left in the tip back into the bottle. Sometimes I will 'burp' the glue container (be careful where you point it) to get rid of that little droplet that seems to always clog the tip.

Just my $.02

There are little triangle widgets that are made for pens and pencils that keep them from rolling off the desk. Will work for exacto knives as well. Staples, KMart or wherever office supplies are sold.