Thread: CA - CURING TIME ?

Time betwen coats?
Curing time before sanding?

I just rubbed 5 or 6 fast coats on my test scrap ( Hot Stuff and a piece of Seran wrap ) and am impatiently waitiing. I have 1 sticky finger print so far.


I'm trying CA on top of teak oil on Basswood to get the process figured out

Hot stuff will permiate down into the grain of the wood. helps a bit more then standard super glues in the beginning. that being said the coats are extremely thin.

put a little space heater up on a table. just one of those small ceramic ones. then turn it on to low and put your scales in front of it. 1 coat of CA will dry in about 45seconds or less. that being said, its very fast but doesn't leave it exactly smooth either. after your 4/5 coats before you sand, let it sit a bit longer to ensure that its completely dry. by the way, if the scales are hot from being in front of the heater and you apply another coat, you can actually see the glue smoking. its very noxious and you should open the window. you'll see or should i say, wont see cuz it will burn your eyes if you're in front of that heater and the fumes are blowing at ya.

benefit to hotstuff is that it drys super fast and you can sand/polish it up to a amazingly smooth and clear finish.

downside so far is that it is very thin and that doesn't really fill small holes/marks in the coatting. thus it requires more sanding at the end then i think should be necessary.

go to CVS or a hair product store and buy a box of plastic gloves like doctors wear. its like 8$. cut off the finger tips, that will give ya 5 uses per glove with 100 gloves in a box. thats alot of coats of CA.


~J

JScott's got it right. I will add, however that if you put CA on too thick, it tends to "frost" and you get that white powdery finish on it. It needs to be sanded down before the next coat, or else you get to embed your fingerprint in in for all eternity. The rubber glove thing works wonders. The space heater stops a lot of this by removing moisture from the air the CA's drying in. Not really a problem if you use very thin coats, though.

So with Hotstuff is a minute between coats good? What about time before sanding (all without using a heater)?

Originally Posted by Philadelph

So with Hotstuff is a minute between coats good? What about time before sanding (all without using a heater)?

I don't use Hotstuff, so I can't say. When it's not tacky anymore, it's dry. That's the best I got. I use RP100, which I buy by the pound. It's a medium CA.

Bringin' this thread back for a sec...

Do you use the glove fingertips for one coat only? I'm wondering if you could re-use them or if that will in fact mess with the finish or cure time.

ok, couple answers,

yes, 1 coat of CA for 1 fingertip. that means you can do both of the scales. then you need to wait for it to dry. that ca on the fingertip of the glove will become amazingly sticky(more so then any normal superglue) in about 3seconds. so by the time the scales are dry the fingertip is rigamortis. that will apply unevenly if you use it again. come on man, you get 500fingertips for 8$ with a box of doctor gloves. sheesh!

if you really want to speed things up you will need to apply heat. that crappy little 15$ space heater makes it fast. remember. if you apply new coat of CA while the scales are super hot from in front of the heater, the CA will really smoke and it will dry almost instantly and your finger will get stuck before you can set the bottle of CA down. so let the scales cool down a second before applying. blow on it, hold it by an open window-whatever you want.

before you sand you should give it more time to ensure that it is completely dry. you don't wanna mess with it to early while sticky which leaves finger prints everywhere on it you touch. and sanding while wet makes you dig out chunks.

~J

ps. basically i have come to believe that sanding is the key to smooth scales. the many many coats of CA are to protect it from water yes, however they are also so that you have room while sanding to remove CA spot problems and still not hit the wood base. so build up some coats of CA before you finish sanding.

Has anyone used the accelerant that is sold in hobby shops? It is sold in a brown glass bottle with a pump sprayer. Lay the glue down then mist the accelerant. It is an almost instant cure. I do not recall if it changes the color of the CA.

this finger tip thing is confusing me can you explain exactly how to do this for us leaning challenged ?

Originally Posted by Bluto

Has anyone used the accelerant that is sold in hobby shops? It is sold in a brown glass bottle with a pump sprayer. Lay the glue down then mist the accelerant. It is an almost instant cure. I do not recall if it changes the color of the CA.

Yes! I love it, it keeps anything else from sticking to it like lint or dust. It does not cure all the way through instantly however.