Thread: CA: Open or Shut?

I'm sure some of you guys have read that thing that says to leave your CA containers open rather than shut and they will never dry up that way. Anyone have experience here? I just got a big thing of hot stuff and want to know whether to leave it open once I open it, or put the cap back on between uses. Anyone?

I usually keep mine closed, but I find it doesn't really make a huge difference unless you have it sitting around for a few months.

Once I'm done with it, I usually give the top a quick wipe to clean off excess; and I literally mean quick, so that whatever I'm wiping with doesn't cure and stick. Then I just drop the top back on. I don't press the top back on so that it's completely airtight, just enough so that, say, should it be knocked it over, nothing will spill out.

Bill advocates leaving the top off, but I've noticed little difference either may. Maybe it's because of the brand of CA or type of container, but I don't know. I remember I once did leave the top off and not use the CA for some months, and, the half ounce or so I had left turned completely to gel.

I usually just stick a pin in the tip to seal it.

I cap mine and put in a refrigerator.

Keep it open. I've been doing that for over 25 years. This works very well for bottles of CA not tubes. Make sure you have a place to keep it where it won't get tipped over. Just build a little rack to put it in.

+1 for the leaving it open thing. I've had surprisingly little trouble working with CA in terms of gluing things together accidentally or having the glue harden when I didn't want it to. The glue doesn't seem to harden until it's spread out thin.

Josh