CA glue shelf life and why "instrument grade"

[David King]

I just get surplus Kynar tape off ebay. It's not cheap but a roll will last a very long time.

[Nick Middleton]

If you put the tape on the the scraper, you can flex the scraper a little and angle it forward to cut a little deeper than the tape is elevating the blade at.

For me it makes a great way to first knock it down to a rough and controlled depth before I flex and tilt for final leveling.

[Steven Smith]

A note on the Stew Mac CA with whip tips. I use those and have found that I can just leave the whip tip on all the time with no change in the glue shelf life that I can see (i.e. I don't bother to remove the whip tip and re-cap the glue bottle). When I finish using them I always take a scrap of paper towel or rag and, pointing the tip up, clear the tip of any left over CA. I find the glue is always ready to use and, as long as I don't forget to clean the tip, I don't have to trim the tip ends. I've been doing this with their #10 thin and #20 medium for at least the last year.

When the CA gets thick I throw it away. I also keep all the CA in a glass baking dish. I've had the bottles split on the seams from age (I suppose) and leak all over. The glass dish keeps the damage localized.

[David King]

I buy my polymide tape off ebay. It's not something a hobby shop would have heard of as it's used to mask PCBs in wave solder tanks or ovens.