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Hey y'all,

After many years of repairs and builds I have a question that I should have asked earlier.  What is the difference between "Loctite's" professional grade super glues and the other super glues available from our suppliers and wood working companies.  For some reason I have never ordered any, just went to the hardware store and bought regular ole superglue.  Any problems with doing this?  It always seems to work well, just wondering.

Dale

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I've used both and have had no problems attributable to any brand.  I have found that once the bottle is opened, use it up in a few weeks at most.  It looses strength once opened.

Thanks Glen, I have noticed it losing strength as well.

viscosity and strength are two main differences I notice

store it in the frig it will last longer

You should never store CA in the fridge after it's been opened. This is universal advice from the folks who package it, whether it's relabeled generic or one of the big brand names. 

Hey Dale. I don't know enough about chemistry to have an intelligent opinion on strength, but 

the physical packaging is what I look at. My main concern is to have something that fits

in the fret slot. (Don't yell, it's a choice.) Our friends at Walmart offer Loctite brand in a "gel control"

form that is just great. It comes in a plastic bottle that has a twist top that breaks the seal.

Once you've popped that, you can carefully sand down opposite sides of the tip to flatten it

and make it thin enough to fit the opening of the slot. I like to use a mini triangular file to form

a little bevel on the slot, and this seems to help guide the superglue tip so you don't have to

a bunch of clean up. Just what works for me. I like the smaller bottles (.14 oz.) as they don't

harden like the big ones.

My job sent me to a Loctite seminar a few years ago, a morning of fascinating demos from an adhesive genius.  Their product line is enormous, but well and plainly documented at their site: 

http://www.loctite.com/index2.php?cc=us

The consumer side has what most of what we need, but the industrial side might interest those with special problems or a need for dispensing systems, etc.

Just for fun, select Product Advisor on the menu bar.  It's really a trip, one of the most helpful sites I've ever seen from a manufacturer.

John

The absolutely best supplier of CA glue is Satellite City Mfg. !

http://www.caglue.com/

Thanks everyone so far, John several years ago I worked for a Loctite distributor and they brought a RV to my branch office that was set up like a theater on the inside and did product demos for customers!  It was cool.  So I have a lil background with loctite.  Just wasn't sure if there was a difference in "industrial" quality and what is commercially available.  Plus the cost of the product is all over the board and not sure I can find a difference.

Dale

I think that StewMac deserves to be mentioned as supplier here. Many viscosities and high quality bottles. I keep them in the fridge, and they last forever.

BS

At various times over the years I've used CA's from Loctite, Aron Alpha, Satellite City, etc, though I can't say I really know how many may simply be repackaged from the same factories. For the past few years I've just been using the Bob Smith Industries stuff that you find labeled as store brand in every hardware and hobby shop. I swore that I really missed and preferred the Satellite City I used to use, and eventually went back to their glues. Now that I have however, I almost think that I want to go back to the Bob Smith stuff. 

Thing is, I can't really say that there is any big difference. The only thing I've noticed is that the bottles of Satellite City thin glue I recently got seem a tiny bit more viscous than the Bob Smith glues I've since gotten used to, but this could simply be that the Satellite glue may have been old stock when I bought it. Either way, I think I'll be going back to the hardware store CA. It may not be any different, but it is available in smaller bottles that get used quickly, and I know their stock cycles through quite quickly there so I don't have to worry so much about buying old glue. 

I think when you get in to specialty CA's like low odor, flexible plasticized formulas, or ones optimized for certain materials, there may be more of a difference. For the standard thick and thin CA's that we use most however, I guess I just haven't found that big a difference between one and the other. 

I have wondered whether or not it is a benefit to let CA glue return to room temperature after removing from the fridge?  Restated: Does temp at use matter?  I buy the Bob Smith brand at the hobby shop in the hope of fresh stock as well.

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