Cyanoacrylate glue, more popularly known as super glue, or “CA” glue, is the most often used adhesive in a wood turners studios. It helps to have super glue as an adhesive among other adhesives for any woodturning workshop. It’s quite a multipurpose adhesive to have. Here are some tips for using and storing cyanoacrylate glue, enabling you to get most out of it.
Storing Cyanoacrylate Glues
The shelf life of cyanoacrylate glues is generally limited to 6 – 12 months after the container has been opened. Bottles that have not been opened can be stored in freezer to extend the life of this glue. But if the bottle is opened once and exposed to atmospheric moisture, it needs different storage measures to prevent premature curing of the contents of the bottle. Unopened Containers: Sealed bottles should be stored in freezer to get longest shelf life. It’s important the bottle comes down to room temperature before being used; leaving them out from the freezers for about 24 hors does the trick.
Opened Containers: opened bottles should be stored with their caps on unless these are being used in an area that has very low levels of humidity all around the year. Prolonged exposure to humidity could lead to premature curing of the cyanoacrylate adhesive in the bottle.
Those buying big containers of cyanoacrylates for subsequent transfer to smaller containers should ensure to use only polyethylene bottles for storage.
Open containers of cyanoacrylate adhesive should be kept away from bottles of manual pump accelerator. During summers, high temperature can cause vapors of accelerator to escape the pump spray unit, and cause premature curing of uncapped bottles kept close by.
Open bottles should not be stored in the freezer, because on being removed from there, condensation could develop inside the bottle resulting to premature curing of the adhesive.
To get the best results of long storage, the opened bottles should be stored in a jar with a tight fitting lid and a desiccant pack that goes to absorb any moisture present therein. If stored in such a manner you can almost use the last drop of adhesive without wasting any material.
Preventing Tip Clogging
Characteristically, cyanoacrylate adhesives have a tendency to clog the tips of their applicator bottles on being stored inappropriately. The clogging at tips can be avoided by wiping out any residual cyanoacrylate on the outside of the applicator tip and allowing the residual adhesive to go back to the bottle before reaffixing the cap. Make sure that the tip of the bottle doesn’t come into contact with any surface sprayed with active accelerator; else the accelerator will cure the cyanoacrylate inside the nozzle. It’s a good idea to buy a few spare tips, available at most woodturning suppliers, thus you will always have some clean tips handy for use whenever needed.
Using Cyanoacrylate Glue To Fill Deep Voids
If you often employ inlay crushed stone and such materials in your woodturnings, these can be secured using either cyanoacrylates or epoxy, depending on the type of fill used. When using cyanoacrylates with deep voids, or as a binder for inlay work with crushed stone, sufficient time must be allowed for a full thickness cure before sanding the filled area. The time varies and needs up to 24 – 36 hours or even longer, depending on the depth of the filled area.
Though one may use an accelerator to speed up curing, nothing is better than time. The best way is to allow the adhesive to cure without using any accelerator on deep voids, because over use of the accelerator often results to blooming and frosting. In extreme cases, bubbles get formed under the cured skin, tarnishing the look of the inlay.
As far as possible, avoid using accelerator, allowing the piece to cure naturally before sanding the area. Natural curing makes sanding easier and the deep filled areas look much better as a result. Nothing works better than time. If you hasten the process of curing on a deep fill, the turning may get damaged and need a wide-ranging repair.
Moreover, sanding before the filled area has been completely cured can prove hazardous, as the inner layers of the void may still be in fluid state, though the top may get hardened. If you sand too soon, there is a risk of exposing the lower layers of liquid spurting out and causing injury in the process.
Using Accelerators
If have been handling cyanoacrylate adhesives earlier, you would have probably noticed that a white haze, or frosting appears on the cured surface. This trend is known as blooming, or frosting. High levels of humidity or inappropriate use of accelerators can cause as a result of violent curing reactions.