As it turns out, I have quite a sensitivity to CA glues. Please fill me in on which brands might let me continue to enjoy building without developing pneumonia every winter.

Thanks,

What are you building with it??

if it is a balsa plane, just use other glues....

the only thing I use CA on is my foamys...

Switch to aliphatic resin (Titebond, Elmers, etc.). I have never heard of anyone having an allergic reaction to it. Based on tests that were done many years ago, it is just as strong and is slightly lighter. The only drawback is the length of time that it takes to set but by planning your building, you can build one part, set it aside to cure and build a second part.

Bummer about your sensitivity to CA... Have you considered using aliphatic resin glue?

Before CA came along, and often since, I have used aliphatic resin glue successfully - While AR doesn't set as quickly as CA, it sands easier, and gives time to make sure parts are properly aligned before drying. The water cleanup is also a plus, and using AR I have yet to semipermanently bond my fingers together or to other body parts or items that happen to be lying randomly on the board...

In terms of more time taken with AR vs CA, there may be a slight increase in assembly time, but with separate, portable building boards for wing panels, horizontal and vertical surfaces, I suspect I don't burn more than an additional hour or two accountable directly to the use of AR.... To paraphrase - "a bad day building is better than a good day working", so "losing" that time is not critical to me.

Timewise, sanding, covering and equipment installation eat up more time than waiting for AR to dry, so in the grand scheme of things, it's a non issue.

Cheers!

Jim

I'll try the titebond. Thanks for all your help, guys. The time waiting for it to dry can't possibly add up to the down time caused by the infections. It took three bouts with pneumonia this winter for me to realize it was the CA. I'm a teacher, so I just assumed the little guys were trying to kill me.

K

And what makes you think they aren't?

maybe the kids are hiding CA in your desk!!!!

I too am very sensitized to CA and cannot use it unless I wear my supplied air mask that I use to paint cars while gluing the plane parts together. What a bummer. I have tried Titebond, Elmers etc. but the best I have found is H/D 601 Gluit aliphatic glue made special for airplane building. Do not buy the 600! This glue is made by pica products at 2675 NE188th st. Miami, FL 33180 and is usually available through your local hobby shop. THis glue is a fast setting aliphatic and beats the others in my book. Try it and you will like it. Just make sure you have the parts pinned and/or clamped and a good fitup and they will be just as strong or stronger. No allergies here! Enjoy!

This is an on-going problem for many of us. The allergic reaction can creep up on you over time (i.e., you may not be allergic today, but you may be tomorrow) and it can vary widely in symptoms (i.e., sniffles to heart arythmia). Unfortunately, many of our current laser-cut kits seemed to be designed specifically for CA and the interlocking fit is so good it simply cries out for CA. Being highly allergic to CA, I have tried everything in the book and found that odorless CA, particularly Bob Smith Industries, is a pretty good alternative. The aliphatics, particularly the Pica Glu-its (unfortunately, since Pica has shut its doors, it is disappearing from all sources), can be used in a lot of applications with the added bonus of being a lot more sandable than CA. Anyway, there are alternatives out there that work and work well, so keep building...and stay healthy.

As a kid CA did not bother me when building but now that I'm older for some reason it gives me pounding headaches a few hours after I use it. What I do when I have to use it is setup a fan which blows across whatever I'm gluing to push the fumes away from me. In general this seems to have worked for me. Unfortunately you must use CA with CA hinges and quite a bit of it. One other thing I do is hold my breath while applying the CA and then turn my head away to breathe, hold the item as far from me as I can or put on the bench and move away. All this time I have the fan blowing the fumes away from my face.

I was almost to the point with the headaches to get an outside air fed respirator or something. Seinreit here suggested something he bought on ebay which is like a full mask with a fan and hose to the outdoors to suck in fresh air and force it into the mask where you are breathing. The volume of air coming in the mask is so great that no air from outside ever makes it into the mask where you might breath it. The item was not too expensive and I think there is a link in the thread here on rcu as well as a photo of the device.

Here is a link you can still buy the Gluit products. http://www.quicktechhobby.com/Adhesi...ves%20main.htm

There are odorless CA glues on the market that you might try. Quite a bit more expensive but worth it to me.

I vote for the oderless. It is higher but shold help the reaction.

David

I'm allergic to CA and tested out Aliphatic Resin, (Great Planes wood glue).
I totally like this stuff and prefer it to CA because of the longer cure time, non-toxic, sandable and is just nicer to work with.
Smear it on with your fingers and afterwards, just go wash them in water.

The wood glue cures quite fast, and the glued parts can be handled shortly after assembly.
Also the wood glue is really cheap compared to CA....

OK, I use CA in emergencies on really hard-to-reach places, but when I do, I hate the smell, that it sticks to EVERYTHING, is totally rock hard = can't be sanded etc....