Problems with thin superglue

[phillipdcware]

Hi All,

For years I have struggled to use the super thin, very fast drying superglues (cyano) for gluing very small, critical pieces of etch brass, for example the jacket ends on Master Barrel gun jackets, one mistake ...and...........the piece is lost,(or glued, somewhere you don’t wanted it) Or, all you fingers are glued together and the tweezer ends are welded shut as well, just for good measure!!!!!!

WELL HERE'S A LITTLE SECRET. Those of you that went to school in the 50's, 60's will remember the scrapbook/ arts and crafts glue that came in the small sloping shouldered clear plastic containers, there used to be a red/ orange coloured rubber teat on the top that you made a hole in on its sloping side (the cut out slot was pre marked) you inverted the bottle pushed the red rubber nib/teat back on itself and the honey coloured, glue came out.This glue is still available, its called "golden Gum" made by "Stephens" it is described as being for paper and light card. IT'S WATER BASED.

If you squeeze some out onto a tile and drop a little water nearby, then with a small "00" paint brush mix the concoction to the consistancy of milk, paint this onto the area to be glued, and add the two pieces of etch together.

When dry it holds very well (drying can be speeded up with a hair dryer)
when dry you can clean up any excess with water and a small brush for a perfect finnish, painting the piece will make the joint more resilient.

However if you are not happy with just that, superglue is hygroscopic so just before the golden gum dries if you add a tiny amount of superglue to the still wet gum on the piece already assembled the superglue will track the gum, creating a perfect very strong seam.

All this with no mess, no frustration no bother it just works very well.

If you know about this already, sorry, I got the idea from ship modellers who have to arange 1/700 scale ships rigging. they use golden gum for rigging so they do not have to ruin hooped radio masts because of a single mistake after weeks of assembly because it is strong enough to hold and if you make a mistake, water will take you back to the start of the problem with no damage to the rest of the assembly,no more scraping superglue off your etch (when you've found it of course!!!)

Hope this helps to lower the blood pressure and improve the look of your etch brass work.

Best Regards
Phillip