Hints and Tips

The use of cyanoacrylate adhesives alone, with accelerator, and with common baking soda as a filler material has added thrift, speed, and efficiency to our pattern operations. We have found C/A used for little else but mounting of pattern letters in other pattern shops . The tip was passed along to us by a group of radio-controlled model airplane enthusiasts.

Common C/A reacts or cures in the absence of oxygen, in the presence of moisture, and on contact with alkaline surfaces. Accelerators are but alkaline sprays and the baking soda makes a hard, durable yet readily workable filler. Industrial grade C/A is more than twice the price of hobby grade and we find performance equal. In the hobby trade there are two viscosities of C/A , a thickened version and an extremely thin watery version. The thin is our choice for all around use because of its tremendous wicking action. C/A also gets thicker with age.

Shelf life varies on unopened C/A. Unopened stock will last indefinitely if C/A is frozen and deterioration is slowed if only refrigerated. C/A alone is great for assembly and with soda for filleting of small and delicate or intricate patterns and models. We use it for quick and dirty wooden jigs and fixtures and for no slip tacking of parts to a layout line.

In practice, treat one surface to be joined with accelerator and assemble to layout position dry, hold while applying C/A to closed joint. The bond will be permanent in 3 to 10 seconds. For fillets, or gap filling, tool soda into position with ball or fingers, gently blow away excess powder and flow C/A into powder carefully so as not to wash it away before it reacts. Fillets are easily sanded or filed with a rifler to perfection.

Care and precision in application will deliver instant beautiful results. Experimentation is in order. These methods will repair and build up damaged matchplates with edge and corner dings. Our source of supply is Tower Hobbies, Champaign,Ill. , a mail order house.

There are three brands to choose from, Hot Stuff C/A, Pacer ZAP C/A, and Goldberg JET C/A. Tower Hobbies toll free order number is 1-800-637-6050. You may also find C/A at a local R/C modelers store.