CA gluing technique question

I wouldn't use CA to glue a fuselage together. I use a liquid “welding” glues by Testors, but others glues that are similar are Ambroid Pro Weld, and Tenax.

What they do is actually melt the plastic together. When you squeeze the fuselage halves together a little bit of the melted plastic oozes out and forms a bead along the seam. When it dries, you sand down or scrape that bead of plastic and there's no seam. Squadron offers a seam scraping tool for just this purpose.

But, even with care and good technique (something I often lack) seams don't turn out perfectly, that's where putty and gap-filling CA glue come in.

Check out these two articles that really helped me:

Beginner's guide to fuselage assembling by Steve Wilder
http://s96920072.onlinehome.us/tnt1/001-100/TNT068_gluing_Wilder/tnt068.htm

This article covers the whole thing from start to finish. It has good photos too.

Seam Putty Techniques by Matt Swan (our very own Swanny)
http://www.swannysmodels.com/Seams.html

This article explains how to fix seams with putty. This technique really helped me take care of a particularly nasty seam earlier this week.

There's a little overlap between the articles, but taken together, they pretty much cover the whole topic.

Regards,

i would do a small section at a time. apply a very sparing amount of CA to one side, position it, then apply some accelerator. repeat until the whole fuse is done. remember that residual accelerator will cause the CA to set, so dont let it take you by surprise.

reggiethedorf-
If I dont apply accelorator will it affect the finish or just slow the drying process?

Lufbery-
thanks for the info, so if I decide I need to use the gap filling glue after the fuselage is already glued togeather, how do I go about using it?

QUOTE: Originally posted by CStateRamFan Lufbery- thanks for the info, so if I decide I need to use the gap filling glue after the fuselage is already glued togeather, how do I go about using it?

It depends on what your seams look like after you've used the liquid glue. I've had it happen where I get little dips or divots in the seam where the bead of plastic seemed to have gone down intead of up. That's where I'd use the gap-filling CA.

Just squirt it in (actually I apply it with a toothpick), and wait a while (or use accelerator). Then sand it before it becomes too hard. If left to dry completely, superglue becomes harder than the surrounding plastic, so when you sand, the plastic around it disappears quicker than the super glue.

Where the putty really helped me is where I had a step from one fuselage half to the other. Using Swanny's technique, I was able to blend the step so that it wasn't noticable.

Regards,

thanks alot! I'll give it a try tonight.

Good luck. Joining the fuselage halves is always an anxious task for me. It's a good thing that it's easy to fix problems when they occur.

Regards,

if you have the patience, not using accelarator is OK. just wait for the CA to cure fully while holding it together, should take about 20 seconds tops. actually, i dont use CA to glue fuse halves myself. i usually use liquid glue and a technique similar to the one mentioned in the link given by lifbery. id recomend that method

thanks reggie. 20 seconds insnt that bad and it may actually give me some time to work!! thanks for all your input.

glad to help! i have found that CA glue doent take much of that 20 seconds to somehow find its way to your finger and make a nice bond between your finger and your model. the phrase "im very attached to my hobby" would then take on a new meaning ergo, the accelerator

QUOTE: Originally posted by reggiethedorf "im very attached to my hobby" ergo, the accelerator

Yeah really!!! I thought my model was coming to work with me today as I glued myself to the engine cowling! New question, I used a sirenge from the hobby shop to apply the CA and it worked ok the first time, but when I went to glue my wing halves togeather about 5 minutes later, (I cleaned it out after the first use) all the glue gelled up and ruined the sirenge. Is there a better way to apply that super thin CA? If by a fine tip brush, how can I keep the brush from sticking to the model on contact or keep the brush clean for multiple uses?

what i do with CA is i get a jam jar, flip it over so that its bottoms up, then use the concave surface to hold about 3 drops of CA. the concave surface is ideal for this, and the glass means that you can chip the hardened CA off after you are done. i use a toothpick to apply the CA, or sometimes a thumbtack, you know the kind with the handle on it. after applying the CA i just toss the toothpick but save the jamjar for another day.

oh yes, forgot to add that acetone dissolves the CA very well. if you cant get industrial acetone, nail polish remover works great. acetone is also good for nixing pimples. but thats irrelevant

thats great advice! thanks alot.