Originally posted by DCBluesman
<br />Gluing in brass tubes is not an exact science. The materials we glue together vary greatly and the types glues all have advantages and disadvantages. Without picking one over the other, here's more information than you probably want to know about glue.
Glue only works in two ways: direct bonding and contact bonding. In direct bonding you apply the adhesive directly between two surfaces. In contact bonding, you apply a layer of adhesive to each surface, and then the two layers of adhesive are put in contact to stick to each other. Contact bonding is not often used in craft work as the bond is near permanent the moment the two adhesive surfaces touch.
The glues most commonly used in woodworking fall into three categories: water based, solvent based and chemical curing.
Most wood glues are water based and cure through evaporation. They stick best to highly porous surfaces (such as wood) and thus are not a good choice for plastics and metals. Poly and CA glues are solvent based and also work by evaporation. They work best with less porous surfaces such as metals and plastics. Epoxy is chemical curing glue that involves a physical change when a hardener is introduced to a resin. This is a fast bond, but can be slowed by the introduction of a third chemical to increase the amount of time the chemical reaction takes. Epoxy works well on a wide variety of surfaces.
With all of this in mind you can more easily select the appropriate glue for your need, BUT, regardless of the glue the surface needs to be clean and free from lubricants (other than water).
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Cyanoacrylate is an acrylic resin that cures (forms its strongest bond) almost instantly. The only trigger it requires is the hydroxyl ions in water, which is convenient since virtually any object you might wish to glue will have at least trace amounts of water on its surface. BTW, the water can be simply the humidity in the air!
White glues, such as Elmer's, bond by solvent evaporation. The solvent in Elmer's all-purpose school glue is water. When the water evaporates, the polyvinylacetate latex that has spread into a material's crevices forms a flexible bond. Super glue, on the other hand, undergoes a process called anionic polymerization. Cyanoacrylate molecules start linking up when they come into contact with water, and they whip around in chains to form a durable plastic mesh. The glue thickens and hardens until the thrashing molecular strands can no longer move.
With all of this in mind you can more easily select the appropriate glue for your need, BUT, regardless of the glue the surface needs to be clean and free from lubricants.