Thoughts on Glue Looper?

Man, this is a great thread. I've heard of tools like this before, but always made do with a toothpick myself. Don is right though - the thin glues that I use the most tend to wick or soak into the wood of the toothpick. I'll usually get by this by letting a layer of glue dry on the toothpick first to cut down on its porosity.

I've got a bunch of copper wire in my drawer. I'm going to take a shot at making a couple of these tomorrow on my day off to see how they work.

 Chris

I've been using the stump end of stretched sprue for my glue applicator. After I cut off the thin part, I use the knife to split the end of the sprue which holds the glue or CA accelerator well. If and when it gets gunked up, I cut it down some and split the end again.

I find toothpicks work for gel CA, but not the normal thin kind. It seems to wick up into the wood too much- I have to put down a lot more on the toothpick to get any on the model.  Works with the gel stuff  'cause the gel stuff is thick enough not to wick.  I have sometimes used an X-acto blade to put a little slice in the end of the toothpick, which leaves a gap that holds CA, but a fair amount still wicks.  I think plastic toothpicks would be nice for this.

Hello everybody!

One thhing that can be done, too, is to take some thin copper wire and twist the ends together, forming a small loop. A cheap solution, so you can throw it away after you're done. Best source for said copper wire is a short piece of wiring, from which you pull out single strands of wire as needed. Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

Toothpicks work for me.

Hi!

Yup, copper wire works… The Glue Looper works better.  :-)

The way the looper works is it consolidates the thin glue with a minimal amount of surface area (that's why is does not dry in the loop). When the flat surface of the loop makes contact with the model part the liquid is actually what make contact first (see photo below). When it does make contact the liquid just wants to rush into all the cracks… At this point the glue has a much larger surface area and dries almost instantly because CA glue is activated by the humidity in the air. The flat surface area of the loop is what makes this possible, and it's why the production Looper product works so well.

Hope this helps.

I used to use the sewing needle version as Don described. Then I switched to a short length of copper wire inserted into a toothpick section as a handle, with a loop made at the free end. It has the advantage of reaching around corners (or already-bonded sections of railing, for example) for more precise application. I burn off the accumulated dried CA as needed, or just clip the wire and make a new loop. Works a treat.

A needle eye appears like a much better option.  It's stouter than the etched brass used for the glue looper and lots cheaper.  

I was a toothpick user before, but the sewing needle sounds more reliable.

Don, you may want to consider burning off the excess as they did in the youtube video to avoid using the knife tip.

Carl

Yep, I use the needle thing. I took a piece of three eighth's dowel about three inches long, and took the largest needle from my needle assortment (good for a number of modeling tasks).  Stuck the largest in the end of the dowel.  Then I ground the end off of the dowel.  Made another for CA accelerator.  The accelerator works better.  When I apply the actual CA with the (partial) eye, a lot remains in the eye, and I have to frequently clean it out with knife tip.

People have been using something very similar for a long time by cutting the end of the eye off a sewing needle. It works exactly the same way.