How come that the only thing that this "10 second super glue" stuff acually does glue together in <10 seconds are human fingers instead of the stuff we try to glue (which usually takes hours to stick togeter)

No kidding. I tried to superglue a neon light into my car outside a Radio Shack once. I had to drive home with 4 fingers stuck together I guess it's a good thing I didn't stick to the steering wheel.

The technical answer is that our skin is porous and made to absorb liquid a hundredfold over what you are attempting to glue



I hate that too.

That and the fact that skin is generally more textured than most things. Particularly fingertips...

Believe it or not. The real answer is that CA glues were first designed to allow surgeons to glue their patients back together. For those places where stitches don't work well.

"I've super-glued myself to... umm... myself."



Generally, CA sucks for pretty much anything and everything.

Bruno

Believe it or not. The real answer is that CA glues were first designed to allow surgeons to glue their patients back together. For those places where stitches don't work well.


People refuse to accept these things. I've freaked out my co-workers a few times by gluing cuts together with nail glue. They won't believe e when I tell them it's dermabond in a cheaper package.

it works great for building R/C airplanes (except the toxic fumes)

Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue!

when I used to build the airplanes I would work in an area with a fan and a window open and I would get nose bleeds all the time just from normal use. I had to go back to the old takes all night to dry and is heavy stuff.

The real answer is that CA glues were first designed to allow surgeons to glue their patients back together. For those places where stitches don't work well.

Yeah -- like in Vietnam.

In reality, though, they weren't developed for this purpose, and, in fact, OTC CAs are methyl CAs, which have issues with toxicity. Medical-grade CAs are butyl (or other longer alcohol) CAs, which don't have as much of a problem. Also, it was initially developed by Kodak to be an optically clear polymer for use in optics, but was rejected. Later, Kodak was researching it as a heat-resistant acrylic for airplane windscreens when its adhesive properties were discovered. (I have a hard time believing that the first inventor didn't glue his fingers together, but maybe the formula has been refined since. ) A little later than that, it was released as a glue product, and then a few years later, was used in MASH units in Vietnam. I don't beleve that it has ever been approved for medical use in the US, but it has almost everywhere else, and I could be wrong, too.

Ha! Very true. I remember hearing about that years back. Seems very appropriate