I am always frightful of using CA under casting resin. Even though I do it with my watch part pens but that is such a small dab it is not worth mentioning. If I have to glue larger objects and you will see of these examples coming soon, I use epoxy and but in this case I use a 15 epoxy. Now I have explained this method I use and it was not long ago with another thread but I always draw a straight line on the tube if using any type of covering on the tube that has straight edges. I use a colored marker the closest I can get to the color of the item I am gluing. I do not use either CA or epoxy to glue strip of abalone or anything like this. First off my abalone has a sticky back adhesive and if it does not I apply one. I have been using what I call the best adhesive at least that I can find and is super thin and has worked well. The key is to roughen the tube and I use 180 grit sandpaper and a couple swirls and done. Wipe off with alcohol. Do not touch tube again. Do not touch back side of adhesive to get the best bond. This is common sense but thought I would mention it. In your case and not have tried it much because I really have not gotten into the abalone thing because I have not figured out a good way to cut them. Will dive into this soon. Hopefully. But the problem you have using either those adhesives is squeeze out.
Now these are only suggestions and do what you want with them.
**Get stickyback adhesive this is what I use.
https://www.fastcap.com/product/speedtape
**Use a thin layer of epoxy and on the very ends use a dab of thin CA and when set hit with accelerator to keep strip in place.
** Spray the entire tube with spray adhesive such as 3M 77 heavy duty adhesive, not sure of open time but that stuff is great. Am using on a couple other pen part tubes and is the ticket for what I need. The down side is you need to spray entire tube and that stuff is messy so be aware. Other than that that is all I have. maybe the pros will jump in here. and share their secrets.
Larry I will say one more thing, patience is a key element. I have plenty because I grew up with scrollsawing and that will test your patience for sure. But also a light touch. I have large hands and find myself using tweesers, awls, or popsicle sticks honed down to points. I did pick up a huge trick just recently from jewlery makers and that is there is wax sticks that they use to pick up small stones and pieces. Talk about a life changer for me and watch part pens. One of those why did I not think of that. Also and again a huge one, lighting and possible magnifiers. Again as I got older they rose to the top of needs when doing scrollsaw work as well as anything intricate as building watch part pens. Good luck. Here is an example of scrollsaw work that I would not be able to do without magnifier and also good lighting. My own pattern but the cutting of letters is time consuming and I could show you plenty more.
View attachment 347308
