Super Glue: the straight skinny

tommykleen · Post by **tommykleen** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 8:50 pm

Here's the deal: the round bead popped off of my bass reg tuning wire. Need to glue it back on. I want to use the best super glue possible. Super Glue was once a trade-marked product name. Now it is a generic term. There are many such products out there. Recommendations? Before you answer, the two surfaces to be adhered are brass rod and horn.

t

Antaine · Post by **Antaine** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:13 pm

i like one called "quikset," i believe...they sell it at sears...it has a hard bottle with little buttons on the sides to squeese out the glue, so it's really controlled and has a good cap. i carry a bottle in every instrument case for on the road quick repairs

Uilliam · Post by **Uilliam** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 12:18 am

An epoxy glue would be a better bet than superglue.There will be more strength when it cures.Over here ye can get something called Liquid Steel...over there ? but I would suspect it has an equally catchy macho name like Girder Glu or somesuch title...anyways ye should have no problem with that...

Uilliam

AlanB · Post by **AlanB** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 1:21 am

LOL @ Girderglu....

Zap CA is a good 'superglue', very fine, runs into all those little corners, but beware, I nearly caught my trousers (pants) on fire, it reacts something awful with cotton or leather.

Alan

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:23 am

We do have liquid steel over here, and it is an adheasive I would also recommend....tough stuff, I've used it on many items where I have needed to adhere natural materials to metal (i.e., horn to metal etc.), and it has never failed.

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:42 am

All the superglues are some form of cyanoacrylate. I'm not sure if the concern here is really with the holding power as much as it is with the thickness of the glue. The cyanoacrylates are usually thin and watery, perfect for running into very fine hair cracks, whereas the epoxy resin glues are quite thick, and would be better for sealing wider cracks. Both are quite strong when applied in the appropriate situation, but I would agree that the epoxy resins, due to their thickness, have much better resistance to shearing pressure.

djm

TnWhistler · Post by **TnWhistler** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:15 am

Careful with that super glue, Last time I used it I couldn't put my chanter down for a week. Good excuse to practice though.

Timmy

wolvy · Post by **wolvy** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:17 pm

I would use a slow-drying epoxy instead of a super glue. It gives you better working time to set it in place. I would stay away from 5 or 10-minute epoxys however. They out-gass too much (i.e. too stinky) and are typically weaker.

I like the Devcon 2-ton epoxy. It is almost as good as the old AMR stuff that luthiers in California used to use to butt-bond guitar necks to bodies with (per the David Russel Young book)

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 3:36 pm

Check out this Web site:

http://www.thistothat.com/

Royce · Post by **Royce** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:25 pm

Yeah tommyboy:

Get some Elmer's. Either the stuff in the tubes, or the little square bottles. If your brass and bead fit good and tight it's the superglue you'll be wanting. If there's some slop in it, go for the JB weld or Iron-Crotch Alpha-Male Adhesive, or the Beefy Buttcheeks Macho Hunk Solder. If you can find it, try the Heavy-Duty Butch Bicep Bonder.

Royce

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 4:14 am

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 4:30 am

One I like is the "gel" superglue. It is a little thicker than the others, and it is "set" by twisting after applying the two parts together.

The only way I could break the seal was with the main ingredient of fingernail polish remover.

Of course that was the large areas involved in the construction of the Penny Chanter.

billh · Post by **billh** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 4:55 am

The superglues have the advantage of being removable (either by mild shock loading - they tend to form a brittle bond) or with one of the special-purpose superglue solvents.

You may wish to check on the material your bead is made of; it it's actually plastic, the cyanoacrylates or MEK superglue removers may attack it. If it's superglue-safe, I think superglue is the better choice (over epoxy).

The gel superglues avoid the problem of "setting too quickly" and have some mild gap filling properties. The Zap CA ("Zap a gap CA") brand is probably one of the best.

- Bill

Uilliam · Post by **Uilliam** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:20 am

Bill,he said that the bead was HORN....

Post by **Nanohedron** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 1:55 pm

Royce wrote:Yeah tommyboy:

Get some Elmer's. Either the stuff in the tubes, or the little square bottles. If your brass and bead fit good and tight it's the superglue you'll be wanting. If there's some slop in it, go for the JB weld or Iron-Crotch Alpha-Male Adhesive, or the Beefy Buttcheeks Macho Hunk Solder. If you can find it, try the Heavy-Duty Butch Bicep Bonder.

Royce

Yeah, and then you could haul your pipes around in this über-macho ride:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6026041/

What the hell; the sooner we gobble up petroleum, arguably the better.