Which is the best way to store cyanoacrylate glue in either sealead or already opened tube to retard unwanted polymerisation?
Refrigerated, Frozen?
In the past I used to wrap a opened tube tightly in aluminium foil and store at room temperature..
So far I prefer 2-component heat cured epoxy glue even for tiny Tasks, as the glue is correctable, removable for some time. And only use cyanoacrylate for fast cementing.
since the polymerization is induced by humidity, it should be stored dry and cool. Put it in a small plastic bag to avoid condensating water when you take it out of the refrig. Before fitting the two parts together it is helpful to breathe upon both surfaces. The small amount of humidity helps hardening. Be careful when you want to glue in the near of optical parts, the glue is rather volatile and the vapours leave white residues in the surrounding which are hard to remove.
Yes Jochen, that "haze" on surfaces can be quite nasty. (Another reason I only rarely use such glue. And after two uses within one year it hardens in the tube.)
But there seems also to take place polymerisation inside the sealed tube without added water vapour.Thus my idey of cold storage even for the virgin tube.
Hello,
cold storage is good. A friend of mine has a bottle of cyanoacrylate glue from 1969 in his refrig and it is still o.k. He worked in the development of adhesives. The special offers "5 tubes 1 €" in the 1 € shops sometimes are very slow and sometimes very fast. The speed of curing is strongly dependant on impurities and the quality of manufacturing.