Hey Guys,

I tried searching this site and google but did not come up with the needed info. Does anyone out there have a formula for making your own Home made CA Accelerator ???

If so could you please post your formula here?



Thanks in advance!

Baking Soda dusted on the joint works great
Pete

only problem with the baking soda method is it sands like concrete!

Water works good, but strength of the CA may be affected. CA always sands fairly hard, no matter what you do.

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but why even consider making your own accelerator when it's not too expensive and it is designed by the pros for that use exclusively?

One teaspoon of baking soda to six ounces of water, shake well use in a spray bottle. Only problem is that it leaves the surface wet. You can hit with a heat gun if you want. Factory accelerator is still the best.[8D]

Cigarette smoke works well. Must be puffed on joint without having been in your lungs. Its alkaline and acts as a fixer.

Hey... you mean "Bill Clinton style"? [sm=tongue.gif]

Good flying,
desmobob

There was a big thread on here last week about puffing smoke at CA

DOesn't do me any good, I quit smoking 6 months ago. Now what?

I have never smoked in my life and don't intend to start.

I just thought it was amusing how an individual discovered that all that smoke accelerated his CA.

Enjoy,

Jim

OK guys... lets get back on topic...


Any other ideas for home mad CA Accelerators?



Rick,

I suspect that naptha, kerosene, gas, or diesel fuel would work. The accelerator is a specific hydrocarbon (can't remember which one) that should be part of the contents of one or more of the above.

Back when I used to use CA I used accelerator a few times and a always noticed that it smelled like Raid wasp spray, so I figure the base it the same. If I'm not mistaken it's a petroleum base of some sort.

Ken

My eflight foam compatible says it contains HEPTANE at 825 grams per liter.
I have read that all Ca's react with OH- or hydroxide ion so a light mist of water would set them. You might try putting ca on one surface and exhaling (to form fogging) on the other and putting them together. try it on some scrap pieces and let us know.

Puffed, Joint? Who is higher the plane or builder. Wonder how my Boubron whiskey flavored pipe tobaco would compre to cigarette smoke

Commercial accelerators are a solvent base (usually n-heptane or acetone) with an active ingredient, fairly often at quite low concentration. The solvent, by itself, does not work! I have seen MSDS sheets that mentioned chemicals such as tolidine and various quinones as active ingredients. The chemicals themselves are not readily available to the average person. One trick I have learned is that the amount of "active ingredient" in the accelerator is far more than is needed to "kick" CA. If you know what the main solvent is for the accelerator you use (check MSDS sheet), it is often possible to dilute the accelerator by as much as 4:1 and still be as effective. If you have access to the appropriate solvent, it makes the stuff a lot less expensive to use.

Ross

Maybe it's just me, but I cant see why anyone would want to go to the trouble of hunting all that stuff up when you can just go to the shop and BUY a bottle of acellerator. It's cheap, and if you dont overuse it, a bottle lasts a while. I personally prefer to spend my time either building or flying, instead of playing chemist.

Next someone will ask about dope accelerator.

"What did you do on the weekend? I made a joint and puffed smoke at my dope covered plane!"

Commercial accelerators are indeed largely an inert solvent like heptane. The active ingredients are amines (note the sort of fishy odour of CA accelerators?) which produce the required alkaline environment when sprayed on wood. There are several amines that are used, but aniline is commonly part of the mix.

I don't recommend trying to brew your own and besides, the costs of the raw materials are significant when bought in "retail" amounts even if you can find a chemical supplier who will sell them to you (these days, lab suppliers are all paranoid about selling chemicals[&o], they think we are all potential terrorists. They have a point, of course...).

Water and baking soda will work if you don't like the idea of aniline, but then, if you don't like that what are you doing using CA in the first place? I like the commercial accelerators because the carriers evaporate very quickly (unlike water) leaving the amines on the workpiece without it being soaked.

I'd be happy to discuss the chemicals used in modeling with anyone - I am a professor of organic chemistry by trade, and educating people about the responsible use of chemicals (and incidentally fighting irrational chemophobia) is something I take very seriously. But, let's do it by PM since I doubt most RCU folks really want to get all that detail...