I'm in Home Depot getting some FnF, I look at the glues. I don't have good luck with CA since it usually dries up in the end, frustrating. Anyone use the Gorilla glues, especially the Gorilla Super Glue? If so, how well does it work? I have some plastic stuff to glue together soon, on the Eagle I bought and my old Mercury Redstone(yes, the one with wooden fins) I started YEARS ago.
#2- I have seen the section on the "Rocket Building" website what he does with his CA, what other methods do you guys use to keep it from drying up before using it all??
Thanks

Are you talking about the original Gorilla Glue, the thick gooey brown stuff? If so, that is polyurethane glue. I haven't found too many uses for it yet in model and mid-power rocket building, but it may have a place. Just like CA, polyurethane glue is activated by water, but in this case, the parts have to actually be slightly damp for it to bond them. You give the bonding surfaces a quick wipe with a damp (not dripping wet) cloth or paper towel, then apply the glue. What is unusual about this stuff is that it foams up in the presence of water before curing. A full cure takes something like 4-6 hours. Because of the foaming, you can't make invisible seams with it, and any parts that have to be bonded with a tight seam have to be firmly clamped together for at least 24 hours while the stuff cures (be prepared to clean up the outflow). It cures to a hard, moderately dense, very tough and very shockproof plastic foam. It is useful, I suppose, for making thick weld-like seams on lap joints and butt joints, where at least one side is hidden from view, or where the thickly beaded seam won't detract from the appearance. It does indeed form an impressively strong bond!

The main thing I have used it for is to bond a slug of BB's or split shot inside a hollow nose cone for balance weight. I think that it works better than epoxy for that, because I don't need to use as much, and the foam fills the space well. If you use it for that, just make sure that all of the pieces of shot are well-coated with the glue for best results. You could also use it to fill hollow spaces to give them rigidity if the spaces are relatively small. I think that the cured Gorilla Glue might be a bit heavier than an equivalent amount of two-part insulating foam, so it might not be as good for filling larger hollow spaces.

Speaking of Gorilla brand products: has anyone tried Gorilla Tape for anything? Is it really that much stronger than duct tape?

I haven't tried Chris' tips on keeping CA from prematurely hardening in the bottle, but they sound interesting. I wonder what my wife would think if she opened the fridge one day to find all of my bottles of CA sitting on the shelf? I'm not sure where one finds teflon tubing, either; I'll have to Google for a source for that. All I do for my CA is to make sure to keep the bottles capped when I'm not actually applying glue (and wipe all of the excess off of the tip before I put the cap back on), and keep extra caps and tips on hand to replace them whenever necessary. I sometimes use a thick (large) safety pin to clear dried glue from the tip, but otherwise, I don't stick anything into the bottle because I don't want to introduce any contaminants into the glue. I also keep my accelerator (Insta-Set) in a sealed container on a shelf several feet away from where I store my CA, and when I want to apply the accelerator, I take the part to another room or outside first. My local hobby shop is a long drive away, so it is not practical for me to run out to it every couple of weeks to buy more glue. Consequently, I buy my CA in the 2 oz. bottles. I have had one or two bottles cure up prematurely, but usually I only need to replace my CA when I empty the bottle.

One thing I may do in my next trip to the hobby shop is to buy a couple of small bottles of CA along with my customary 2 oz. bottles. I would then only use the glue from the small bottles for normal day to day construction. When those bottles run low, I would just replenish them from the larger bottles, which would otherwise remain sealed (and maybe even kept in the butter box in the refrigerator!).

Mark \\.

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SAM # 0011

I bought a bottle not knowing what to do with it. When I went to use it on a non rocketry project some time later, the whole thing had hardened like a bottle of old CA.

There's no "buy or use before" date on the bottle or anything else to indicate that it's got a limited shelf life (post research says 6 months max, including whatever time it sat in the warehouse), and my inquiries to the company went unanswered.

Exactly the kind of customer service that tells me to spend my money elsewhere.

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I fought the law, and the law LOST!

Thanks guys, maybe I will stick to epoxy then. I'll get some CA and try to keep the tip cleaner.

I use it all the time for MPR and HPR. If you ever plan on making a crayon rocket from the cranyon banks at Toys R us, it is the only thing that seems to stick to the type of plastic they use for the top (nose cone). It is also great for gluing BB's for nose weight as Mark said.

Now a few months ago, I came across Gorilla wood glue at Walmart. This is a standard, non-foaming wood glue. Great stuff IMO. The tack time is really quick and it dries quickly.

http://www.gorillaglue.com/glues/woodglue/index.aspx

Whenever my CA tips clog, I swap out the tip with a fresh one and put the clogged one in a small jar of acetone. I just swap them back and forth. You can usually buy extra tips wherever you buy the CA.

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I love sanding.

Quote from Mark II:
"I haven't tried Chris' tips on keeping CA from prematurely hardening in the bottle, but they sound interesting. I wonder what my wife would think if she opened the fridge one day to find all of my bottles of CA sitting on the shelf?"

Maybe that's why I'm single! My "Ex" never quite got the rocketry addiction. She tolerated the CA in the fridge, I've repaired her jewelry and even her brocken cell phone. At least now with my own place, I can build rockets and model ships on the kitchen table, not in the garage.

I've always found the Teflon tubing right around the CA glue display rack in the smaller one-owner hobby shops. It's usually coiled up in a small ziplock style bag. If you buy a couple of feet of tubing, it could last you for years, provided you continually clear the tubing after each use.

When you cut off the tip of the CA bottle, you have to "shave" off tiny cuts until the teflon tube "friction fits" into the tip. When you are gradually cutting off the tip you are making the tubing hole bigger and bigger.

Good luck with this!
Hans "Chris" Michielssen

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Hans "Chris" Michielssen
Old/New NAR # 19086 SR

www.oddlrockets.com
www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com
http://www.nar.org/educational-reso...ing-techniques/
Your results may vary
"Nose cones roll, be careful with that."
Every spaceman needs a ray gun.
Look out - I'm the Meister Shyster!

Gorilla Glue is good stuff, but not for external use where rocketry is comcerned. Back in 2001 I bought a Custom Stealth Interceptor and used Gorilla Glue to attach the fins. They look like they've got some kind of mange at the attachment point because it expands as it dries. (Although I must say I've never broken a fin.)

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

I have found a few uses for Gorilla Glue. The original foaming stuff.

It's great for gluing wood dowels into a block of balsa so you can turn them on the lathe. Be careful not to use too much in the hole it will push the dowel out as it cures. If you tape the dowel down with masking take it won't push out.

Also for gluing layers of blue foam board for turning large nose cones to be fiberglassed. Again you do need to clamp the parts as the glue cures.

I start by glung the foam board to a plywood bulkhead, then gluing the layers of foam together one or two layers at a time.

It does push the pieces apart without clamping.

But for woodworking, like building a workbench, it's unbelievably strong!

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"I'm a sandman. I've never killed anyone. I terminate runners when their time is up." Logan from "Logan's Run"

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Gorilla Super Glue is CA.

I used some this week to glue the cardboard parts on a Quest saucer. When it pranged (a D5-0 might not have been the best motor choice) the cardboard failed not the glue joint.

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Bill Spadafora
http://www.billsplumbing.com
billspad@comcast.net bill@billsplumbing.com