"Shelf Life of Glue"

Well ;

   Now that is something I don't have a clue about . I do know that many I glued back in  the sixties are fine . Not exposed to direct hot sunlight  .As far as CA , well , that's an unknown as I only use it for small things and such . White Glue  .Well  ,cars I built many years ago and aircraft from around then , still retain their canopies and windows .

CA has a noticable degradation with time, and I have had bottles become useless before they were empty.  I have had epoxy last for several years.  Biggest problem I have had with white glue is hardening near nozzle, but after cleaning nozzle out the glue itself worked fine.  I have used bottles a year or two old without problem.

But CA only seams to last a few months.  In fact I have had "dollar store" packages be useless-hardened  in tubes- when I first tried to use them after bringing them home.  I suspect some of that bargain stuff is outdated, from salvage companies.  So it even goes bad in unopened tubes.

TB,

    Thank you.  Sadly, I do not have any old kits built in my youth so I have nothing to compare with.

    I think storing/displaying them out of direct sunlight is probably the best thing to do to ensure a long life after assembly.

Don,

    I am sorry, but that is not the question that I asked.  As I know that all cements/glues have various shelf lives.  What I was asking is after a model is assembled what is the shelf life of cements/glues not designed for styrene plastic i.e. how long before it starts to fall apart.

The short answer is we don't know. Super glue is a relatively modern invention. We just don't know how long it lasts on a model. It also depends up on how well it was used. I've had super glue joins fail in months. I also have joins a couple of decades old that are as strong as they day they were first made.

Ah, sorry.  I have been building models for over sixty years, and have never had one fall apart from glue failure.  However, I do not have any models I built in my youth.  I think my oldest models are about 25 years old, but none has failed.  I have had paints fail/change-color on older models, but no structural problems.

I share Dons' comments as well. I had a number of kits from my younger days and had to ditch quite a few due to being in storage in my cellar. About 80% of my car kits ended up in the trash due to many pieces falling off. There was no pint in trying to salvage all of them since they were all packed carefully in one box. I think the reason they fell apart is not because of glue adhesion being old over time, but more of moisture of my cellar.

Hello ;

You are very correct in that assumption . Moisture and temperature as well as sunlight or lack of it . The only thing I've learned over time is about C.A. That is it has very little shear strength . It doesn't get into the plastic like regular plastic cement does . Of course neither does White Glue of any kind .

    I think it's a choice of what to use and why , given the builder and his/her abilities and material at hand .