Haha, that’s so true! The padded cell really is the perfect place for delicate assembly—no carpet monsters to eat your tiny parts, and your frustration stays private! Do you have any funny stories about lost pieces or assembly mishaps?
1 Like
Haha, good point! If the floor is padded too, those carpet monsters would be twice as tough to defeat! I guess a trusty hobby knife is a must-have weapon—even in the padded cell. Hopefully, no one’s ever banned from bringing their tools in!
1 Like
I thought about it, briefly, before deciding that my sanity was too valuable.
1 Like
Well others thought this was amusing, I’ve told the story at least twice before over the past 5 years but I can’t find which threads it was in. So with apologies to old hands, and for the benefit of newer players;
I was putting some PE brackets into a MiniArt Su122 interior, using CA glue and a scalpel blade to push them into their shallow recesses. The first two went in OK (after putting a smudge of CA into each recess), but the third fought back because the recess wasn’t quite long enough. Becoming frustrated I heard a fatal “ping” and blinked at the same moment – the PE bracket had vanished. I spent an hour or more searching the workbench, my clothes, the carpet and eventually the whole room. Nothing.
That night as I was brushing my teeth, something caught my eye in the mirror…something glinting on the top of my ear.
10 Likes
Starbond Black CA takes about 10 seconds to grab, so you have some adjustment time. It’s strength and resilience is far superior to regular CA. Get some.
2 Likes
That’s absolutely brilliant—and perfectly horrifying at the same time! The ear?! That’s one I haven’t heard before 
I guess it’s true what they say: lost model parts defy physics and end up anywhere. Thanks for sharing that—definitely made my day!
2 Likes
Thanks for the tip! That 10-second window sounds perfect—not too fast, not too slow. I’ll definitely give Starbond Black a try. Always appreciate a glue that’s strong and forgiving!
1 Like
I know, ironically it was the CA glue on the bracket (already maybe 20 seconds old) which instantaneously dried on my ear that probably saved it from being lost altogether. Given the velocity the bracket must have been travelling (I really was exerting a lot of force to get it bedded into the recess) it was a minor miracle. It was just disappointing nobody noticed my cosmetic brass adornment that afternoon or when we went out for dinner that evening. Too subtle I guess.
5 Likes
The saving grace was, you didn’t lose the part!
3 Likes
Haha that’s hilarious—and honestly, I think you just invented a new genre of modeling-related fashion: accidental brass earwear! 
Minor miracle indeed that it stuck to your ear and not somewhere completely unfindable. I guess next time you should pair it with a matching PE monocle and see if anyone notices at dinner!
3 Likes
Maybe a lot of people had a good story to tell about that strange guy they saw once in a restaurant that had a piece of brass stuck on his ear …
People are usually too well behaved to start commenting, “Hey, mister, you got a piece of brass stuck to your ear”
2 Likes
Be happy that you blinked and it didn’t hit an inch to the side and got stuck on your eyeball
2 Likes
Yeah that did occur to me too - if I hadn’t blinked and a couple of centimetres to the left, how would the ER have saved my eye? Certainly a rare medical statistic, compared to Coke bottles…you know what I’m talking about 
2 Likes
If you put glue on first and then saliva, you’re to blame yourself. 
4 Likes
can’t say i agree completely. i use it too and although it seems to last longer before going off than other brands i used it still gives me fit like not even curing even after hitting it with accelerator.
Joe
1 Like
peter does accelerator work on the gorilla glue? and how quickly does it set on it’s own?
Joe
1 Like
and maybe my wife would mistake it for something edible and glue her mouth shut, what was the one that debonder doesn’t work on again
2 Likes
yeah, they dry out after a time. you could use something from VMS (which personally i prefer) or the gorilla glue stuff, but even they would dry out eventually (even if after a year or more)
1 Like
I don’t know if accelerator will work, but Gorilla Glue sets pretty fast if it’s fresh. Warning: Gorilla Glue never ever responds to debonder. There is NO debonder made for it, so please wear gloves when you use it.
I mainly build figures now, so I use a toothpick dipped in Gorilla Glue placed on an index card and slather the glue that way. Then I just leave the joined pieces along and they’ll stick permanently. It’s about 5-20 seconds for a permanent join. I rarely if ever hold the pieces to stick. You might have 2-10 seconds to move and play with the pieces before the Gorilla Glue sets permanently.
It does dry in the bottle, but that’s over a year or so. It turns into thick gel over time from flowing liquid. Unlike CA superglue, Gorilla Glue doesn’t form crystals and won’t dry in the bottle overnight like a surprise.
2 Likes
So, I noticed the label on one of my bottles of BSI blue label glue had come off as I was walking by my bench and when I went to grab it too look, I realized that the bottle had blown a hole in itself spilling the contents across my MDF stand and all under it. I’ve seen this talked about on this site before and was wondering if anybody had this happen ad if anybody know what causes a bottle of superglue to commit suicide and cause a problem like this.
4 Likes