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Its all in the title, just wanted to ask what your favorites brands were before making some newbie mistake and buying the wrong thing

I prefer Zap-A-Gap, the green one. Just my brand of choice.

Loctite Gel. The control it offers along with the fact that it is one of the strongest I ve used make this my super glue of choice. I have at least 4 of this lurking around the house along with the one I use.

I second Loctite, though I have the Gel and the Liquid hanging around, as they're good for different things. The Gel takes a little longer to set and has a sort of springiness, so it's great for smaller pieces and for anything where a bit of movement time is useful. Obviously, as a gel its also very difficult to pin with it (it doesn't seep into the hole) so I have their Liquid glue to do that, which flows very well into cracks.

Amusingly enough, I'm getting the GW Thin Super Glue sometime soon, as apparently it's the bee's knees for applying over chains to set them because it's so thin and delicate. I guess everything's good for something.

Deffo Loctite, why cheaper and so much better than the GW may stick 50/50 chance superglue they over charge these days.
The control flow one is my go to choice, works well on FW resin

BSI! Their purple stuff is great!!!! Also, the bottle has a great nib to it, making it easier to control flow. I use it for everything!

Loctite Gel for sure.

I also have some gorilla super glue because it is thinner, but I always find myself going to the gel. The gorilla super glue never seems to want to set for me.

Have only tried a couple but really like zap-a-gap gel, has made assembling models much easier. As mentioned above you still need a non-gel version for some things.

I use krazy glue, the bottle with a brush applicator.

Any super glue that sticks models together well.

Placebos for the placebo god!

All superglue - ALL OF IT - is exactly the same. If it's called superglue, that means it's ethyl cyanoacrilate. All of it.

As such, the best superglue is the superglue you pay the least for. I buy mine in packs of 6 from the local walgreen's.

 Ailaros wrote:
Placebos for the placebo god!

All superglue - ALL OF IT - is exactly the same. If it's called superglue, that means it's ethyl cyanoacrilate. All of it.

As such, the best superglue is the superglue you pay the least for. I buy mine in packs of 6 from the local walgreen's.

So how come they have such different properties then? Apart from the obvious gel vs. liquid issue, and how crappy GW's stuff is, and how they often have different setting times. True, ethyl cyanoacrylate is the main ingredient, but that's a bit like saying all chicken dishes are the same...

I use Gorilla brand superglue and will never go back to anything else.

 Todosi wrote:
I use Gorilla brand superglue and will never go back to anything else.

Same here, not sure why but it does seem better than anything else I used before.

BSI's purple with some insta-fix spray

Humbrol Precision for the tiny detail work.

 Ailaros wrote:
Placebos for the placebo god!

All superglue - ALL OF IT - is exactly the same. If it's called superglue, that means it's ethyl cyanoacrilate. All of it.

As such, the best superglue is the superglue you pay the least for. I buy mine in packs of 6 from the local walgreen's.

That's kinda like saying all Vodka is the same - so just buy the cheapest.


Yes, all superglue is CA, but they are vast differences between the brands mentioned in this thread already.


Anyway - my vote goes for Zap-a-Gap medium, the green one.

I generally go with Gorilla Glue, but have recently swapped to a Hobbytown USA brand because it cures faster. Downside is it is a lot thinner than Gorilla Glue and very easy to spill everywhere and once it does it hardens immediately. If you try it, use caution.

Oh yes, there are also these things called superglue insta-fixer spray, such as .. Zip-Kicker? I've not used them myself but I can see why they might be useful. They make it set almost instantly but it also gets very hot. Do not get them both on your hands. While most of the stories in that thread about your worst hobby accident are scalpel/knife related, the ones that aren't are usually superglue and/or fixer related.

 LadyCassandra wrote:
Oh yes, there are also these things called superglue insta-fixer spray, such as .. Zip-Kicker? I've not used them myself but I can see why they might be useful. They make it set almost instantly but it also gets very hot. Do not get them both on your hands. While most of the stories in that thread about your worst hobby accident are scalpel/knife related, the ones that aren't are usually superglue and/or fixer related.

You are correct about them being useful!
If you haven't tried them, I would recommend it!

The best application is to apply the insta-set spray to one side of the model, and super glue to the other. Once the glue and spray make contact they will be instantly bonded. It is worth to note that it will be very hard to break the contact when made.

 Capamaru wrote:
Loctite Gel. The control it offers along with the fact that it is one of the strongest I ve used make this my super glue of choice.

Loctite Gel is my go-to-glue. Works well on the models I've tried it on (metal, plastic, resin) but I do have other glues laying around.

LadyCassandra wrote:So how come they have such different properties then? Apart from the obvious gel vs. liquid issue, and how crappy GW's stuff is, and how they often have different setting times. True, ethyl cyanoacrylate is the main ingredient, but that's a bit like saying all chicken dishes are the same...

Gels are just regular super glue with a tiny bit of thickener added. Any other differences are illusory.

AG. 538417 wrote:That's kinda like saying all Vodka is the same - so just buy the cheapest.

It's nothing of the sort. Small impurities can be tasted by very sensitive organs attached to the human brain. Small impurities of one form or another are meaningless with regards to a superglue's stickiness.

I mean, next you're going to tell me that this picture has some secret meaning encoded in it:



Just because the human brain can create patterns out of noise doesn't mean there is an actual difference. If it were otherwise, we wouldn't have articles like this:

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/generic-pain-relievers-work-so-why-do-i-buy-name-brands-for-my-children/

Thickener and filling agents that are added to CA to create branded superglues affect their sticking power, by filling micro-gaps in surfaces.

More sticky = better superglue.

Video is german but i guess it is enough to see it ^^
The Glue is called "Mammut"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrx5rwmF8M

Further to AIlaros' post, I just use a brand I got 3 bottles of for £1 from the £1 shop. Seems to work fine!

Another vote for Loctite gel. The bond is comparable as that of plastic glue.

To be fair, the cheap as chips stuff is quite effective and if you don't want to mess about with what other brands can give you, they do the job of sticking stuff together very admirably!

Some brands, such as Loctite, offer greater precision on where you can put the superglue and a conveniently larger bottle. Most 3 for £1 superglue rolls are small and have trouble stopping the flow when it is needed. Loctite's control features, while really hard on the fingers, do mean that you don't get more glue than you wanted, and not usually in a place you didn't want.

The extra stuff they add to the gel one in particular means that it sets slightly slower and that it is slightly sticky to start with. When using a normal liquid superglue, when you apply and then press, there is a substantial amount of friction from the first few seconds as the glue bonds. With gel, there is perhaps a five second window where you can wiggle the piece into the correct position. Of course, this can also be problematic, as if you nudge it during those five seconds, things are going to go badly.

Loctite says that the gel formulation has extra springiness so it won't break so easily and will flex, but I've not actually really noticed that being a thing myself, so YMMV.

Really, the extra brands and formulations mostly give you more options on how to use superglue. I have an all-metal army with green-stuff and plastic bitz added (last edition's metal daemons, mostly Diaz stuff) so I use superglue a LOT. As an example, last night I was doing a ton of pinning horror arms because the bloody things always want to fall off. I used liquid superglue for that. The off-brand stuff from the pound store would have done fine. Then, I started making my chimera of a banner and had to glue down a plasticard rod behind the banner and into the grasping hand of the horror. I wouldn't be able to use my quick-setting liquid superglue because I had to slide it through the gap and spin it in order to get the right fit against the hand and folds, so I used the gel to give me some extra time. As I put it in the wrong way round the first time I did it, I'm pretty glad of my decision .

So, mostly they're all good for what they're for. Well, apart from GW's one. Apart from setting chains.

I mainly just by ASDA superglue. It works well enough.

 Ailaros wrote:
Placebos for the placebo god!

All superglue - ALL OF IT - is exactly the same. If it's called superglue, that means it's ethyl cyanoacrilate. All of it.

Not actually true. They are all cyanoacrylates, but superglues can have various chemicals added to it to change the properties of the glue, which in turn makes different glues better for different uses.

I recommend having at least two glues on your desk.

1) A thick gel superglue. These "gap-filling" glues are great when the parts don't match up perfectly (which unless flat, they almost never do). I prefer the rubberized glues (BSI "Insta-flex +" is a good one. Gorilla "Impact Tough" is not bad either). Rubberized glues actually have some rubber in the mix. This makes them a bit less brittle and less likely to break. Brittleness is the weakness of most superglues.

2) A water thin glue this is great for when you are attaching two flat surfaces that are well mated. Water thin glues will -if applied VERY sparingly- cure extremely fast. Also, a water thin glue can be dripped onto an existing joint. Capilary action will suck it into the cracks and it will strengthen the joint. It's also a very good choice when you want to quickly apply sand/ballast to alot of miniatures bases. It dries in seconds as compared to PVA which can take quite a while, especially when watered down. BSI "Insta-cure" is a good watery thin glue

I do agree that you don't have to spend alot to get a good glue. The BSI brands (often sold at shops with the store name on the bottle) are consistent, cheaper-per-oz than most hardware store brands, and they sell extra nozzles and caps so you don't loose the bottle if the nozzle cloggs up.
http://www.bsi-inc.com/Pages/hobby/ca.html
You can find them at most any model or hobby shop in the USA. The only downside is that they don't have a pin-in-end cap so it is important that you store them vertically.

 Fezman wrote:
Further to AIlaros' post, I just use a brand I got 3 bottles of for £1 from the £1 shop. Seems to work fine!

Haha, I'm not alone!

Lucarikx

I'm a Loctite Ultra Control Gel kinda guy. I've noticed a difference in how resilient it is to being shocked (say, knocking a metal mini over on the table) where as normal superglue breaks without putting up a fight. Again, though, I use the normal Loctite liquid for pinning.

I'm not sure what differences there are in different brands, but from what I can tell in my adventures: Zap-a-Gap (green) is pretty decent, but again, the liquid vs gel thing caught my attention.

Krazy glue just doesn't seem to work for me. My buddy uses it regularly, but I can't get it to set. Fresh tube, shake it for good measure (what the hell, ya know?) just a drop, stays liquid until I wipe it off with a paper towel 2 minutes later. It decides to set and glue the paper towel down, but not my plastic parts (of which I have scuffed the surface for better adherence). I gave up lol.

I've used BSI super glues before, specifically the Instant cure and 3-7 second setting, and they're wonderful as well, though I don't recall the price, and I don't see them around my area.