We’re all familiar with super glue. It’s strong and reliable, and most hobbyists and model makers either swear by it or swear at it, depending on whether they have successfully managed to glue their parts together, or glued them to the table or some other place they weren’t supposed to be. And if you do get super glue somewhere it’s not supposed to be, such as between a couple of fingers, you need a debonder to remove it. It also melts certain plastics, ruining your project. Super glue is made with cyanoacrylate, so special care is required to keep it away from children and curious pets.
A brand new type of glue, marketed as “Gator Glue,” offer hobbyists a way to get around the problems of super glues. Gator Glue is an acrylic polymer adhesive that works with water both as a thinner and a debonder. It holds as well as any super glue I have used. It bonds very quickly, but gives you time to accurately place your part. It is also flexible, and once dry, can be painted or sanded. It dries to a transparent finish, and I have not had it turn yellow at all.
We also discovered that it can be used as is, or thinned down with water if you need a very thin coat of glue. The bond appears to be just as strong regardless of which way it is used. We tried several types of application, including coating each side of the joint with the glue and placing them together, or simply gluing one edge and squeezing the parts together. Gator Glue seems to work no matter which way you apply it.
I used a paint brush to spread the Gator Glue on a jewelry piece I was cementing together, and when I was finished, I cleaned the paint brush with soap and water, something not possible with super glues. My roommate, who builds model tanks and airplanes, accidentally glued his fingers together when the part slipped as he was trying to place it on his model. With super glue, glued fingers has presented problems in the past. But with the Gator Glue, he used soap and water to break the bond and completely remove the glue.
So far, the Gator Glue has withstood both acrylic and enamel paints without any signs of melting or discoloration. We have used it to attach glass to metal and wood to wood. I especially impressed with Gator Glue when I tried it on a paper project and found that it held the bond without bleeding through the paper.
Gator Glue is currently marketed primarily to model builders. But after having tried it for other hobby applications, I am absolutely confident that anyone who needs to attach just about anything to anything else will find this a welcome alternative to standard super glues. It comes in a 1.5 ounce bottle priced at $5.00 plus shipping. So far there is only once for Gator Glue, so if you would like to try it, you can find it at: http://www.gatorsmask.com
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