Safety Comes First
Dave Gee
Possum dinner theater, coming to a workbench near you
CAN CYANOACRYLATE glue fumes actually benefit wildlife? Howard Littman leads off this month with an E-mail that answers that question. His workshop is in the garage, so the cool of the evening was a good time to make some progress on his Bf 109 model.
“I put my board on the work bench, got the kit and plans out of the opossum proof box, and thumb tacked the plans to the board. Since this is an electric powered model, and the weight would not be so critical, I decided to use CA to assemble it.
“As I was laying-out the parts, I had the distinct impression of being watched. Looking up, I saw Polly, our resident opossum, and two of her offspring watching me from the top of the shelving unit behind the bench. I said hello to them, a greeting which usually causes them to disappear. This time they stayed and continued to watch me so I returned to work.
“With the front garage door open for ventilation, the white paper of the plans under the light became the brightest thing in the garage and soon attracted June bugs. The insects are annoying but harmless so I simply brushed them away. They cut their visit short when I began spraying cyanoacrylate accelerator on the joints to speed my work. I don't blame them since I don't particularly care for the smell of the stuff myself.
“As the fuselage took shape I became aware of a crunching sound above me. It seems that the June bugs, driven away by the odor of the CA, had made the fatal mistake of flying up to the top of the shelving unit. I suspect that I will have my audience of opossums every night that I work in the garage during bug season since they are being treated to a free dinner and a show.”
Howard still uses a spritz bottle to apply accelerator, but I recently wrote here about an alternative method. Small bottles with drip spouts can put the stuff right where you need it. In addition to making the kicker last longer, it greatly reduces the odor of the whole cyanoacrylate glue process.
As soon as I mentioned this technique, I received my latest order from Peck-Polymers (now run by Karen and Tim Goldstein as part of A2Z Corp, Indoor Model Supply, and Sting Aero Products). Tucked into the package was a selection of NeedleCap Bottles, which are perfect for dispensing your favorite brand of cyanoacrylate accelerator.
I highly recommend a visit to the Peck-Polymers Web site. You will find an excellent selection of modeling stuff and top-notch service. The inexpensive NeedleCap Bottles work great and will pay for themselves by reducing wasted kicker fluid.
On the topic of a waste, it seemed like a shame to have a big, nice AMA Web site and not have some sort of accident/incident reporting system. Not to worry; a beta-test version is being rolled out right now. There will be careful experimentation to see how
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
