Yet another posting on brushing Thin CA as I become better at doing it…

I have posted about this before:

QUICK TIP: BRUSHING THIN CA

TIPS – TOOLS: CA TOOLS

One thing I have experienced in using Thin CA as supplied in the usual bottle/dropper is that the tip much more easily accumulates residue CA to the point where the cap is glued tightly. I often had to use a pair of pliers to open it (in the picture above, the cracked cap is due to this). Wiping the dropper tip after use has limited effect. I think the stuff is so thin that it just flows onto the dropper exterior when handling with the cap on.

To avoid using the dropper, as an experiment, I took an old Tamiya paint jar and cap and poured the remaining Thin CA into it. This was more than a couple of weeks ago. The cap seal is quite good. The CA is causing some crystallizations on the inside of the glass jar above the glue level (pictured) which do not seem to be harmful. The polyethylene sealing plug (inside the cap) is also frosted with CA emissions, but is easily removed from the jar it is becomes separated from the cap.

For now I think only a small amount of CA should be poured in the jar, say about 1/8″. I will monitor this in the coming weeks…

To use, I just open the jar and dip my paint brush into the CA and apply it where needed. If the brush is submerged in CA, it does not solidify so in between applications (say to a couple of parts) I just leave it in the jar. But this is not something I think should be done where long intervals of application are necessary. If I need more time in between gluing, I clean the brush.

To clean my brush, I just place a couple of drops of de-bonder/remover into a tray/palette/styrene sheet, and clean the brush in this as soon as possible. The sooner the easier it is to clean the brush.

I had another idea that may make this a little easier…

Take an empty and cleaned bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement (pictured above) and fill this with de-bonder. Use the nice thin brush supplied in the cap to apply the CA. Once applied put the cap/brush back in place and the de-bonder solution should keep that brush clean, in theory. Before using again, the brush would have to be thoroughly wiped to not get any de-bonder in the CA. So this might not be desirable. Another thing I don’t like about this is the fact that the debonder in the jar will become contaminated in time resulting in less effectiveness.