CA taking 15mins to dry. Help!

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mpex

mpex

Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
152
Location
Columbus, Ohio
I'm having trouble with my CA finishing process. It is taking 15 minutes for each coat to dry. I am trying to do it without accelerator because I've been having trouble with cracking. I'm a complete beginner so I'll bet I'm missing something. At about 15 minutes, it is no longer wet but still a touch tacky. Here are the details.
Environment: basement, medium humidity
Wood: olive wood, but I had the same problem with redwood burl.
Prep: sand from 120-600. Clean w/ denatured alcohol, wait 10 minutes.
Lathe speed: 500 (for applying CA)
Style pen: Amer. slimline
Ca: stick fast ca wood finish thin
Application: thin coat (5-6 drops) paper towel lightly swiping from the bottom right to left one time while I dispense the CA on top.

I hope that is enough detail. Let me know if more is needed. Thanks in advance for the help!
 
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How is your air circulation and ventilation down in the basement. Ventilation is helpful for your health. Circulation should help the dry time. A small fan pointed at the pen spinning on the lathe is worth a try. That is really long for thin CA!
 
just something to try providing it isn't something wrong with the ca. try dripping the ca on the paper towel and rubbing that on, that will result on a thinner coat. as far as the accelerator goes i haven't had a problem when putting it on that thin,
 
MartinPens said:
How is your air circulation and ventilation down in the basement. Ventilation is helpful for your health. Circulation should help the dry time. A small fan pointed at the pen spinning on the lathe is worth a try. That is really long for thin CA!
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You think it would work if I left my vacuum with lathe hood on?
 
Get rid of the stick fast. There was a documented issue with that formula going crazy with accelerator. They changed the fomula and didn't tell anyone. Get better glue and you can do a coat (thin) about every 5-8 seconds. Some variables: wood type, moisture content, ambient temp, humidity, age of glue, temp of glue, speed applied, method applied...my fingers are tired!! You get the idea Moishe. You should be done and sanded in 15 minutes.
 
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Try this test.
Fold a small piece of paper towel, I use Viva BTW, and place it on a piece of wood. Now, put a few drops of the thin glue on it. If it reacts with small billows of smoke then it should still be good glue. If not, throw it away.
I can't say about Stik-fast because I use only Insta-bond.
 
Ok. I've got a couple other liquids I could try. What about using satellite city super 't' gap filling? What do you all recommend for CA brand? Btw, everything I have, liquids and hardware is brand new.

Also, do I need to shake the bottles before applying? I haven't been.
 
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If the CA is not drying in 15 seconds or less, the glue is bad. If your finish is cracking after applying excellorator, your glue is bad, or not compatable. I try to use the same brand CA , excellorater, and debonder. because they are made to be used together. I use Insta-cure tm. Jim S
 
Sounds like old CA. Thin CA should smoke a paper towel, blister your finger and melt plastic in 15 seconds.
Try a fresh bottle with a fan blowing across the blank (away from your nostrils) and see how that does.
 
I really shouldn't comment here because I'm a new turner myself. I read a lot here on the forum and also watched a bunch of Utube videos. Tried about everything and got really frustrated with it all. I have finally come up with something that works for me. I an currently using BLO (boiled linseed oil) and thin CA. This is what works for me! Lathe at about 2000 RPM. Fold a thin paper towel several times to a width of about 3/4". I then fold the towel over starting at one end. You will have several ply of thickness when you do this. Apply a small drop of BLO directly to the folded over end of the towel and lightly saturate that area of the towel with thin CA. With the lathe turning and your vacuum drawing air across the blank, wipe lengthwise across the blank. I go across the blank 3 to 4 times rapidly and stop applying at this point. By the time I have folded over another small section of towel getting ready for the next coat, The CA has dried to the touch or if not, then it's nearly dry. When the thin CA has dried and that doesn't take more than maybe another 30 seconds, then I apply another small drop of BLO to the newly folded over section of the towel and lightly saturate with thin CA. If I forget to turn on my vacuum and draw air across the blank it takes considerably longer to dry. Thin CA builds slow. I am getting about .002 of build with 15 coats of thin CA. I had been using only 10 coats but after micromeshing and polishing I noticed my CA didn't seen to have enough depth. I tried the medium CA and my paper towel would stick to my blank.This is what I'm doing and it's working out for me. I am using Stickfast CA. Just sharing what I've learned so far and will humbly state that I'm not an authority on the subject.---Bobby---
 
mpex said:
I'm having trouble with my CA finishing process. It is taking 15 minutes for each coat to dry. I am trying to do it without accelerator because I've been having trouble with cracking. I'm a complete beginner so I'll bet I'm missing something. At about 15 minutes, it is no longer wet but still a touch tacky. Here are the details.
Environment: basement, medium humidity
Wood: olive wood, but I had the same problem with redwood burl.
Prep: sand from 120-600. Clean w/ denatured alcohol, wait 10 minutes.
Lathe speed: 500 (for applying CA)
Style pen: Amer. slimline
Ca: stick fast ca wood finish thin
Application: thin coat (5-6 drops) paper towel lightly swiping from the bottom right to left one time while I dispense the CA on top.

I hope that is enough detail. Let me know if more is needed. Thanks in advance for the help!
Click to expand...

15 minutes??? I have never used stick fast CA. I never use accelerator and I use thick and it goes on very heavy. I also use BLO applied to the wood before the glue goes on.

Thing with CA is moisture causes it to dry. That is why it instantly bonds your skin upon contact. From looking at the manufactures site for this product I suspect they put something else in there other than CA.

Applying ACTIVATOR will reduce cure time. However, ACTIVATOR may reduce the overall strength of the bond depending on the amount used. Over use of activator will result in a high exothermic reaction, which creates foaming or bubbling, which further reduces overall strength.

Cure speed vs humidity on standard CA (no extra crap added) shows 20% RH yields 64% at 60 seconds. So other question I have is are you in the desert with practically no RH?
 
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AH HA! found it!

Stick Fast™ Cyanoacrylate adhesive uses the ethyl acrylate for a majority of CAs because of its high bonding strength and surface insensitive properties. Flexible and CA Wood Finish have a proprietary modified acrylate that also has surface insensitive properties plus unique formulation for specialized applications.
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The 'wood finish' does indeed have extra crap in there, 'Extended Application time'
 
3 variables

Temp: CA curing times increase in cooler/colder weather. Even new CA curing time will increase with cold weather. What is the temp in your basement? Below 70° - some increase in time; below 60° more; 50° and below slow slow cure.

Old CA: can cause it for sure.

Brands - Some CA's are slower than others;
Thick and Medium are much slower than thin, and in cooler/cold - curing time increases considerably!
 
Jim Burr said:
Get rid of the stick fast. There was a documented issue with that formula going crazy with accelerator. They changed the fomula and didn't tell anyone. Get better glue and you can do a coat (thin) about every 5-8 seconds. Some variables: wood type, moisture content, ambient temp, humidity, age of glue, temp of glue, speed applied, method applied...my fingers are tired!! You get the idea Moishe. You should be done and sanded in 15 minutes.
Click to expand...

+1 on the Stick Fast. Was having the same problem on drying time. Changed to Monty's and no problem. Drying time is like above.
gordon
 
I'm had the exact same problem with my insta-bond last week - combination of cooler temperatures and old glue, mostly old glue.
 
when I use CA I use medium with accelerator, no white spots, applying one after each other, when I was using thin fast CA I had a lot of problems, now those problems are gone
 
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