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.