CA FACTS

[MikeMc]

Stopped in at the LHS today in my quest for Tenax

That failed but I did get a brochure from them all about adhesives..from Bob Smith Industries. I learned a lot about these CA products......here is a quote about CA

"Cyanoacrylates (CAs) have become the adhesive of choice for most hobby and household applications. High quality CAs such as INSTA-CUREâ„¢, when used properly, form bonds that in many cases are stronger than the material that is being adhered. INSTA-CUREâ„¢ is a highly refined CA which, combined with its freshness, gives a guaranteed 2 year shelf life. CAs are reactive monomers that chemically link (polymerize) when pressed into a thin film. The very thin layer of water moisture present on most surfaces acts as an alkali, or weak base, which is the catalyst that results in bonding; however, the presence of detectable amounts of water usually degrades the performance of CAs."

http://www.bsi-inc.c...s/hobby/ca.html

http://www.bsi-inc.c.../hobby/how.html

Edited May 11, 2011 by Stasch

[DanielG]

I have never gotten a two year shelf life out of Insta-cure!

[MikeMc]

Mine is used up in a 6 to 8 month span...I do use it with kicker for small body work

[tabsscale1]

Hardly ever use CA for my models seems theones i have used it on have fallen apart after couple years . All the ones built with testors liquid cemment and ambroid pro wld are still together. Before anybody says anything all I ever use is Insta cure CA when i have to use it

[jbwelda]

i dont know about that inst-cure stuff but i use zap a gap exclusively for ca and it works great esp with a kicker. seems to last indefinately (though it takes longer and longer to set up the older it is...but i usually replace it yearly anyway) but i am in california where the humidity is low.

you do know what it was originally developed for? field sutures. try it next time you slice open your finger with an xacto blade. works like a champ without an expensive trip to the doc-inna-box for stitches. (dont ask how i know)