I may be the last one on the block to hear about this, but if not, I think it’s valuable information.
I stumbled on to a type of glue that has turned out to work so well for me that I thought I should pass it on to the community. It is a CA glue that can be cured instantly with UV light. It will still set up in time like any other CA glue, but it has much more working time than most, and when you are happy with the placement of a dop, You zap it with a couple of seconds with the special light that is part of the dispenser and it’s fully cured. For a little extra stone support you can easily build it up by applying more glue and zap it again. I tend to be very impatient when it comes to waiting for glue to become strong enough in a transfer jig. I want to get on with the cutting, and this stuff solves that problem completely. The one I used is Fiberfix, available at Home Depot, or Amazon, but Amazon has several other brands of light cured glues that I’m sure work just as well. It costs under $10 and has been fantastic for speeding up the dopping process for me. Here is a link.
Thanks, LKB… I’ve been using brown wax and two part epoxy in that “order of preference” because of ease of removal - how easy is FiberFix removed when transferring?
Good information - BTW - I’m on my 2nd DVD lap after preparing the surface with a liberal wipe of a paper towel soaked with acetone and super cerium… it works!
I remove the fiber fix the same way I do any other CA glue, by using controlled heat. I have never had a problem, even with opal, so long as I stick to the method. When doing the transfer I put the stone and dop 1 in the transfer jig and use the fiber fix to quickly attach dop 2. Then I remove the stone and both dops from the jig and wrap the stone and dop 2 with a piece of wet paper towel. Then I hold the wrapped dop in one hand and heat dop 1 with a hot torch while applying gentle pressure with pliers on the dop being heated. The instant the glue softens the dop comes off with very little heat going to the stone. Far less than the heat required for wax dopping. After cutting the second side of the stone, I hold the dop with pliers and heat it with a torch while applying pressure to the stone with an exacto blade. Once again the glue will soften before much heat has soaked into the stone and the stone will fall off. I remove any residual glue by soaking the stone in acetone for a few minutes. It works every to for me.
thanks LKB I will give this glue a go,
I personally like to use CA glue and then use Bob Smith Industries super glue insta set accelerator, it doesn’t take much spray and you can touch the glue right after spraying it with accelerator, I bought a 2 oz bottle in May and still have a lot left.
I have heard of that as well. I suspect it’s just some alkaline solution because I know simply sprinkling baking soda on CA will set it instantly. I think I’ll try a solution of baking soda and water in a spray bottle. I’ll bet it works. There is another thing I like about the UV cure that I haven’t seen in other CA glues. Because it takes between 5, and 10 seconds to cure the glue tack free, I am able to thicken it with a very short exposure, and build it up as I want to in areas that need reinforcement. The other difference I’m noticing is that even though it’s a rigid glue, It is slightly elastomeric, and impact resistant, versus most CA which I find to be extremely brittle. That is one of the most attractive properties to me.