NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE (adventures in adhesives)

[TuggyNE]

So, small electric chainsaw. Has busted-up plastic handle cover, mom figures it'll respond well to a bit of super-glue, so goes out and gets some. Asks younger brother to deal with it, he's recalcitrant. Asks me, I figure sure, why not. I've done models before with plastic adhesive, same basic skill set, eh?

I try gluing one of the three pieces to the second piece, but I get a little overeager and apply glue further than the actual boundary, which is a little unsettling since it'll bond in just a few seconds and then how'll I get it together? Anyway, try holding the two pieces together for a bit, then apply more glue on the other sides to finish the job. Then I realize my fingers are starting to stick to the plastic and the glue tube, probably because the thing has been leaking weirdly in classic ketchup fashion ("shake and shake the ketchup bottle, first a little then a lottle"; seriously, it dribbled as soon as I pierced the top, and then didn't let anything out for a bit as I squeezed, and then suddenly dumped a whole bunch more), so I detach them and become still more unsettled. Then the plastic bits separate again, since I didn't hold them in place long enough. And, of course, the residuum of glue on my fingers hardens.

At this point, I've had it. I cap the tube back up, look for removal instructions on the package (I'm not completely stupid, I've heard what cyanoacrylate is like second-hand, so of course there'll be instructions there) and find a recommendation to use vegetable oil.

It doesn't do anything. And now there's little patches of glued numbness on my fingertips.

So yeah, that's the painful story of how I resolved NEVER EVER EVER TO USE CYANOACRYLATE AGAIN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.


1
Anyone have other horror stories of things they tried that abruptly turned out worse than they thought possible?

[Palanan]

Hm. Not entirely a horror story--at least, not for me--but once I found a decent-sized gecko stuck firmly to a glueboard in my kitchen.

I was living in a tiny, wretched apartment in a building that had a severe roach problem. --How severe, you ask? The roaches cut me a deal: they got the kitchen and nobody got hurt. I kept my dinnerware in the bathroom.

This was in a part of the country where Mediterranean geckos are common, and one of them ran afoul of a glueboard I'd set on the counter. Somehow he was immured dead center of the thing, as if he'd simply belly-flopped down from above.

The poor little guy was still alive, but all four legs and his belly were immured in the glue. Likewise with his tail, although he'd already dropped it, so there was a severed and slightly bloody tail glued just aft of the gecko proper.

Fortunately I knew a colleague who'd done some research on geckos, and she suggested vegetable oil. So I spent over an hour carefully and repeatedly brushing vegetable oil against his feet, his legs and especially the very loose skin on his belly and flanks. It took a lot of patience, and the gecko was not happy with the process, but finally I had a tailless and heavily Criscoed gecko who could be set free outside.

[Lord Shardok]

I'll never have fly tape in my house ever. I gathered all of the ingredients to make taco soup from scratch. Spent about an hour getting everything perfect. As it's finally cooking over the stove, the fly tape that we keep hanging nearby catches a draft coming from the window, and into the soup goes adhesive tape and about 20 flies. All that hard work. Fly tape, never again. :smallfrown:

[TuggyNE]

I was living in a tiny, wretched apartment in a building that had a severe roach problem. --How severe, you ask? The roaches cut me a deal: they got the kitchen and nobody got hurt.

My folks used to live in a house affectionately nicknamed "The House of a Million Cockroaches". I'm … glad? … to see their experience was not unique. :smalltongue:


This was in a part of the country where Mediterranean geckos are common, and one of them ran afoul of a glueboard I'd set on the counter. Somehow he was immured dead center of the thing, as if he'd simply belly-flopped down from above.

The poor little guy was still alive, but all four legs and his belly were immured in the glue. Likewise with his tail, although he'd already dropped it, so there was a severed and slightly bloody tail glued just aft of the gecko proper.

Fortunately I knew a colleague who'd done some research on geckos, and she suggested vegetable oil. So I spent over an hour carefully and repeatedly brushing vegetable oil against his feet, his legs and especially the very loose skin on his belly and flanks. It took a lot of patience, and the gecko was not happy with the process, but finally I had a tailless and heavily Criscoed gecko who could be set free outside.

Wow. Good for you, but what a pain.


I'll never have fly tape in my house ever. I gathered all of the ingredients to make taco soup from scratch. Spent about an hour getting everything perfect. As it's finally cooking over the stove, the fly tape that we keep hanging nearby catches a draft coming from the window, and into the soup goes adhesive tape and about 20 flies. All that hard work. Fly tape, never again. :smallfrown:

Hehhhhh. :smallsigh:

"Shardok, Shardok! There's a fly in my soup!"

[tyckspoon]

If you have to use the stuff again, get one of the bottles with a screwcap and an applicator brush. Sooooo much easier to control where you put it that way (as in.. actually possible. I have much hate for the 'classic' squeeze-tubes.)

[noparlpf]

So, small electric chainsaw. Has busted-up plastic handle cover, mom figures it'll respond well to a bit of super-glue, so goes out and gets some. Asks younger brother to deal with it, he's recalcitrant. Asks me, I figure sure, why not. I've done models before with plastic adhesive, same basic skill set, eh?

I try gluing one of the three pieces to the second piece, but I get a little overeager and apply glue further than the actual boundary, which is a little unsettling since it'll bond in just a few seconds and then how'll I get it together? Anyway, try holding the two pieces together for a bit, then apply more glue on the other sides to finish the job. Then I realize my fingers are starting to stick to the plastic and the glue tube, probably because the thing has been leaking weirdly in classic ketchup fashion ("shake and shake the ketchup bottle, first a little then a lottle"; seriously, it dribbled as soon as I pierced the top, and then didn't let anything out for a bit as I squeezed, and then suddenly dumped a whole bunch more), so I detach them and become still more unsettled. Then the plastic bits separate again, since I didn't hold them in place long enough. And, of course, the residuum of glue on my fingers hardens.

At this point, I've had it. I cap the tube back up, look for removal instructions on the package (I'm not completely stupid, I've heard what cyanoacrylate is like second-hand, so of course there'll be instructions there) and find a recommendation to use vegetable oil.

It doesn't do anything. And now there's little patches of glued numbness on my fingertips.

So yeah, that's the painful story of how I resolved NEVER EVER EVER TO USE CYANOACRYLATE AGAIN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.


1
Anyone have other horror stories of things they tried that abruptly turned out worse than they thought possible?

A bit of acetone should get it off. Non-acetone nail polish removers should also work. Maybe rubbing alcohol. Any kind of solvent, really.


Horror stories? Hmm. One time in high school at engineering club a friend convinced me to put a drop of hot glue in the middle of my palm. That hurt a lot.

[TuggyNE]

If you have to use the stuff again, get one of the bottles with a screwcap and an applicator brush. Sooooo much easier to control where you put it that way (as in.. actually possible. I have much hate for the 'classic' squeeze-tubes.)

What I ought to have done is just use plastic model glue, which we probably still have, and which is rather more controllable. (Also, it doesn't bond to your skin.)


A bit of acetone should get it off. Non-acetone nail polish removers should also work. Maybe rubbing alcohol. Any kind of solvent, really.

I should probably ask to use some nail polish remover, yeah.


Horror stories? Hmm. One time in high school at engineering club a friend convinced me to put a drop of hot glue in the middle of my palm. That hurt a lot.

Ah, yeah, teenagerhood: the time people are about as foolish as they'll ever be. (Barring advanced Alzheimer's, maybe. :smalltongue:)

But yeah, hot glue is pretty extremely hot. Not sure if it's hot enough to ignite paper (I guess probably not, it's been a while) but hotter than most steam for sure.

[noparlpf]

Ah, yeah, teenagerhood: the time people are about as foolish as they'll ever be. (Barring advanced Alzheimer's, maybe. :smalltongue:)

But yeah, hot glue is pretty extremely hot. Not sure if it's hot enough to ignite paper (I guess probably not, it's been a while) but hotter than most steam for sure.

Yeah...intelligence (graduatiing at sixteen in the top 3% of your class) and wisdom (not putting hot glue on sensitive body parts) are clearly different. Darned adolescence and the accompanying Wis penalty. I swear, it's like, -10 on social checks and checks to not do something dangerous.

It's nowhere near hot enough to ignite paper. A cheap glue gun should get you to around 200°F, give or take. If you put the tip of the glue gun into water it'll probably release a little steam.
A high-temperature glue gun can get up to about 400°F, though.

[Proud Tortoise]

Yessss superglue is so annoying. And it stays on your fingers for days. My solution is just repeated soap, warm water and scouring.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yessss superglue is so annoying. And it stays on your fingers for days. My solution is just repeated soap, warm water and scouring.

This feature is actually medically useful. Superglue works very well as an alternative to sutures for holding injuries shut. Though, generally, you want a variety that causes less skin irritation than standard superglue.

[noparlpf]

This feature is actually medically useful. Superglue works very well as an alternative to sutures for holding injuries shut. Though, generally, you want a variety that causes less skin irritation than standard superglue.

Also apparently to cover broken blisters? I dunno, I wouldn't try that myself.

[nedz]

Yessss superglue is so annoying. And it stays on your fingers for days. My solution is just repeated soap, warm water and scouring.

I think you have to wait for the skin to die and fall off.

There is a bonus though — TuggyNE should be able to handle hot things more easily for now, well so long as he picks them up using his superglue pads.

[Mewtarthio]

This feature is actually medically useful. Superglue works very well as an alternative to sutures for holding injuries shut. Though, generally, you want a variety that causes less skin irritation than standard superglue.

I still maintain that "Somebody get me the superglue!" is like the third worst thing to hear your surgeon say

[AttilaTheGeek]

Someone once convinced me that I could use boiling water to get superglue off my hands.

They lied.

[gurgleflep]

I was using that one glue that salons use to attach fake nails to women to make them the lady equal of Freddy Kruger so that I could repair a toy I found while going through my room (I was 14 or so at the time, really into Marvel). In the process of doing the glue, I stuck my index and thumb to each other in the process.
Never again will I touch that Iron Fist action figure...

[TheThan]

The fun thing about glue, is that it bonds skin instantly to skin, but it takes what seems like forever to bond anything else to well, anything else.


As for removing it, I’d say get some fast orange hand cleaner (with pumice). It’s in the automotive section in your local walmart type store or any auto-shop. This stuff is FANTASTIC for removing glue from fingers. (i have a big jug with a hand pump on top for easy application of contents).

I glue a lot of miniatures together so yeah, I fight with powerful superglue (Gorilla glue super glue, Lock Tite super glue that sort of stuff) all the time. This stuff takes it off without too much effort on your part.

[TuggyNE]

For the interested, my mom apparently managed to get the thing to work. Black magic, I tells ya.


I think you have to wait for the skin to die and fall off.

There is a bonus though — TuggyNE should be able to handle hot things more easily for now, well so long as he picks them up using his superglue pads.

While big enough to interfere with my typing a little, they aren't (or weren't) big enough to guard against heat at all.


The fun thing about glue, is that it bonds skin instantly to skin, but it takes what seems like forever to bond anything else to well, anything else.

It's true.

Well, unless you need to reposition it for some reason in which case it has of course already set.


As for removing it, I’d say get some fast orange hand cleaner (with pumice). It’s in the automotive section in your local walmart type store or any auto-shop. This stuff is FANTASTIC for removing glue from fingers. (i have a big jug with a hand pump on top for easy application of contents).

I tried that, actually, but it didn't seem to help much. However, some bits have fallen off, perhaps due to the combined efforts of vegetable oil, pumice soap, and general wear and tear. Still a bit weird, though.

[Lettuce]

If it's any consolation--as bad as your experience was, when you started the thread with "So, small electric chainsaw"...... I was expecting much, much worse. :smallwink:

[TuggyNE]

If it's any consolation--as bad as your experience was, when you started the thread with "So, small electric chainsaw"...... I was expecting much, much worse. :smallwink:

Ahaha, yeah. I've never really had serious injuries like that, fortunately. Not even any broken bones.