Best Super Glue?

[bfic]

What is the best super glue for fly tying? Many of the hobby store super glues say they are only water resistant and I have had some super glues turn white when they get wet. Are any of them truly water proof?

[pittendrigh]

I'm going to dodge the "which is best" part.
Like many others, I use ZapCA and ZapAGap.
I've had good luck with it. Epoxies are generally
better, but way less convenient (you have to mix it).

1) in general the cheaper CA glues come from Taiwan.
They tend to have a yellowish color. They aren't much good.
Better super glues (like the Zap stuff) come from Japan.


2) Dispensing the stuff conveniently is the tricky part.
Here's a dispensing method that works for me:
http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/Fly-Tying/Sandy-Pittendrigh/Fly-Tying-Tools/Super-Glue/CA-glue-step-2.html

[bfic]

Do any of the chain stores carry Zap-a Gap and Zap CA. I'm not finding the products anywhere lately. I've checked a couple of hobby shops, Lowes, Home Depot, FM, JoAnn, Craft Mart - no luck

Thanks
Don

[klintd]

Geez, save yourself the time and gas money and just stop in at a fly shop. What did the dude at Home Depot say when you asked for a good fly tying glue?

[bfic]

No kidding - if I had a shop less than 20 traffic congested miles from my house maybe I'd try that. I used to be able to get the stuff at Craft Mart.

[pittendrigh]

[QUOTE=bfic;279964]Do any of the chain stores carry Zap-a Gap and Zap CA. I'm not finding the products anywhere lately. I've checked a couple of hobby shops, Lowes, Home Depot, FM, JoAnn, Craft Mart - no luck

\===========\
There is one hidden, not-so-well-known secret about the super glue business:
CA glue does NOT have a very long shelf life. Keeping it in a refrigerator
helps....but who's going to do that?

Big model airplane/car shops on the east and especially on the west coast,
will often advertise brand-name (or brand X) CA glue for amazingly low
prices. This usually means they bought a half a truckload of old glue
with little shelf life left.

Fly shops don't sell much glue, so they're often selling old glue.
The best place to buy it (or order it from)
is a high volume model airplane shop, when the glue is NOT on sale.
That way you're most likely to get young/new glue with a longer shelf life.

New glue sets up quickly. Old glue takes forever to get hard.
Old glue doesn't (ever) bond as well as young glue.
I know all of this because I lost a ton of money trying to market
CA glue in the 1980s as "Sandy's Superfly"

[sashjo]

Best is at the Dollar Store. You get like 3 tubes of Super Glue for a buck.

[ceviche]

I tend to go with nail polish. The stuff lasts for a long time and makes a durable head. Instead of epoxy, I use Loon's Softhead. That stuff is great, because you don't have to mix it, you can brush it on, and it uses rubbing alcohol as a solvent (no toxic vapors). After it dries, Softhead is pliable and not brittle, like some epoxies can be. The only problem is finding Softhead. I can't remember where I bought my bottle and haven't seen it in any flyshop as of lately.