Nasty allergic sensitivity to super glue?

[Demihuman]

I picked up some krazy glue a couple of months ago at the local hardware store and I really liked it but I think it is making me sick. I am having classic allergic symptoms after I use it. Anybody else experience this?

The internet and the krazy glue website seem to say it is a distinct or even inevitable possibility. I knew it was nasty and I thought I had enough ventalation but I guess not. I am near sighted and tend to take my glasses off and stick my face right in there. I thought maybe my garage was too dusty or that I had caught a cold from the baby. I am ditching the krazy glue and will wear a half mask the next time I need to use something to bond metal.

 

[Dragonsreach]

If its the really cheap runny liquid superglue I try to avoid it as much as possible, cos the fumes give me a banging headache.
My choice is to go with loctite bottles with brush, that way little wastage, low fumes.

 

[MAXXxxx]

It could be the glue, but a friend had an allergic reaction to ALL superglue-s.
The solution for him was to switch to 2 component resin-s. It had it's advantages and disadvantages.

adv:
- no more allergic reactions
- the bonds are stronger

disadv:
- loinger drying time means it's not good if you want to assemble an army or many minis at once.


As an in-between solution (as most of those reactions are because of the solvents used / fumes) is to glue things outside in the open, not in the house.

 

[Demihuman]

I think it is all cyanoacrylate glue but am not going to experiment to make sure. I am going to avoid it for now. I have some nice plastruct plastic cement that is a dream to use on plastics and will try epoxy on metals or wearing a serious mask outside with a fan on windy day if I do feel I need to use super glue.

 

[Chrispy]

From wikipedia:"About 5% of the population can become sensitized to CA fumes after repeated exposure, resulting in flu-like symptoms. It may also act as a skin irritant and may cause an allergic skin reaction."
So, you may in fact be one of the unlucky 5%. Good news is there is a CA glue that is extremely low in toxicity that they've had no allergic reactions with:2-octyl cyanoacrylate.. Bad news- it's a medical adhesive: Dermabond so you're reaaaaly not going to find it at your neighborhood store.
I think you're right on if you feel you need to use it, take some precautions like that mask but also gloves and goggles.

 

[Demihuman]

Yeah 5% sounds about right. I am a delicate flower. If someone is going to get sick from something it is usually me.

I think I will leave the Dermabond to the chiurgeons and cyberdocs.

 

[uglybug]

Your not alone I have the same problem, took a couple of months for me to accept the fact too. I just wear a respirator now with the cartridges that are rated for noxious fumes. But if you are sticking your face close to the model I could see we're the fumes would effect your eyes. A lot of modelers are effected by it but they just don't want to accept it, I see guys at my LGS suffering while they glue but insist that it's just allergies

 

[Dragonsreach]

I see guys at my LGS suffering while they glue but insist that it's just allergies

Well basically they're right!

 

[Demihuman]

Used some 2 part epoxy resin last night and it's way nicer to use. It fills and flows much more predictably than super glue. It is also tacky enough to hold things together but still workable for 5 minutes. I think for display paintng it is the way to go. I can see it being a pain for army building but really not much of one considering the effort one puts into painting even a low table-top squad.

Allergies aside, I recommend giving the 2 part resin a try. Of course it's got it's own toxicity issues as well. A fan is a good addition to the work bench.

 

[dfernand]

Used some 2 part epoxy resin last night and it's way nicer to use. It fills and flows much more predictably than super glue. It is also tacky enough to hold things together but still workable for 5 minutes. I think for display paintng it is the way to go. I can see it being a pain for army building but really not much of one considering the effort one puts into painting even a low table-top squad.

Allergies aside, I recommend giving the 2 part resin a try. Of course it's got it's own toxicity issues as well. A fan is a good addition to the work bench.

After 3 years of using an acetone based plastic glue (Tamiya Extra Thin Cement) and CA SuperGlue (Bob Smith Industires Insta Cure+), I developed an allegery to both of them roughly at the same time with couging the next day and runny nose sometimes and the occasional sneezing, flu like symptoms essentially. You can feel the irritation in the lungs. If I don't use them and days pass then the symptons go away. I tried a full face mask 3M 6800, big ventilation fans right next to me with their own floor stands and 3M 6098 filters which are meant to filter out organic acids such as acetone but still somehow the vapors affected me (less than before) if say the mask was not fitted perfectly or I walked past the hobby area without a mask after I had been gluing just before.


So I discovered "LESS" toxic alternatives ... for the plastic glue, I used less toxic "Tamiya Limonene" which is a natural citric acid (orange peel concentrate) which works really well on warhammer grey plastics, it doesn't affect me and only takes 20% longer to melt the plastic compared to acetone glues which kill me.


As a replacement for CA glue, I used Bob Smith Industries 5 min Quik Cure Epoxy, it's a two part epoxy glue, far less toxic that CA SuperGlue and the 5 min version can be used on FineCast (not the 15/30 miin versions I think). You have to mix it which is painful but it bonds stronger than superglue, and is liquid enough to say stick magnets in tiny holes on plastic Warhammer miniatures. So epoxy glue is great as a less toxic alternative to CA Superglue. Also u have to be better organized and fast with epoxy as it has a 5 minute work time and in 15 minutes it gets hard and then in one hour it is fully hardened.