So the little valve on my drip coffee maker that temporarily shuts off the flow of coffee when I remove the decanter broke this morning. Not a big deal - I can still use the coffee maker - but the valve is plastic and I thought I’d take a shot at gluing it back together with super glue.
Naturally, it didn’t work. It held until I put the slightest pressure on it and fell apart again.
Which got me to thinking, for all the product claims to do, has Super Glue ever worked for me? I don’t think so. I’ve never really heard of it making anything other than fingers stick together. I have a feeling that this whole company continues to stay in business solely because of the fact that kids sniff it to try to get high.
Do any of you have Super Glue success stories? Do tell.
In the words of Lloyd Bridges, “I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin’ glue.”
You know, you sick bastards have a way of bringing out the WORST in me…and the fact is Darwin has had his nasty little eye on me since birth. Mark my words…if something oddball and screwed up is going to happen it will happen to me…and most often my private parts.
So…since I purchased my own home…other than the obligatory running with scissors with all the lights on, I tend to walk about naked…because I can. So, I have done many a household chore with nothing covering my nether regions. One fine evening I happened upon a tube of superglue…and needed to find something that needed gluing. Kind of like when you get a new hammer, you need to pound something, you all know the feeling. So, I found something (I honestly can’t remember what the hell it was I was going to glue)…I sat on the sofa and went to work. Here I am, naked at home with a tube of Superglue and a project in my lap. This is not wise. As I opened the glue as we all know – Super Glue likes to gush out onto your fingers the moment you open the tube. Well, I was faster than that and got the fingers out of the way…and one small solitary drop of Super Glue gave into the will of gravity and descended towards my lap…landing right (don’t get to sick here ladies) where the…um….”head” meets the “shaft”…where the “schmuck” once was as it would be. I was not too concerned at all really. I was not “glued” to anything – I simply had a drop of glue on me…what could that possibly hurt? Heck, they use Super Glue now in the ER to close wounds (and bill you $7000.00 for it).
I am not sure what happened…I am not sure at all…but I do know that I could not even put on underwear the next day. I had dried superglue clinging steadfast to my “member” and it HURT…right there on the “ridge”. This was something I could do nothing about. What am I to do? Call the doctor and tell them that I have a drop of glue on me and it really hurt? I tried nail polish remover to take it off…to no avail, that only burnt. This was a small spot mind you (hey, I am white) and it hurt to beat all pain. What I had to do was “flake” off the dried glue bit by excruciating bit.
The moral of the story is “No” Superglue has never ever fixed anything for anyone. Sure you can glue a helmet to a beam and hang about…but other than that…it is worthless.
I believe it was used in Vietnam to close wounds without stitches.
I use it every day at work, sometimes I wonder how I ever lived without it. Make sure that both pieces of plastic are clean and fit together perfectly, glue them together, then use some accelerator to set the glue.
when my oakley sunglasses that have lenses surrounded by the frames break, I superglue the lense into the frame and functionally fix the sunglasses. I have two old pair (topcoats and shields (I think)) fixed this way that are holding up quite good. I think that is my only positive superglue experience . . .
I use Super glue to keep my cable ends from fraying. I’ve had good luck with this. Super glue can close a wound in an emergency, but don’t use it for routine cuts. It has small amounts of some poison in it (cyanide, I think). The ER version is non-toxic.
The version of Super Glue that is at a reconstructive surgeon client of mine has a label with “Super Glue” written right on it. Superglue poison? Hell, 99% of what they use on you is poison…in the right quantity.
I accidently broke off the door that covers the gas cap on my vehicle and superglue has been holding it back together for almost 2 years now. Also, my dog knocked my rearview mirror off the windshield and superglue has held it back on. I have had success with superglue for bigger items such as these, but small items like you were trying to repair don’t seem to work.
I would be wary of using in the coffee maker as it might contaminate the coffee.
Here are several uses:
Repair cordura
I had a backpack and a brief that had come unstitched. As opposed to sewing them, I glued them. I t has held on both items for years. Curiously, the backpack smoked when I applied the glue.
Cap bike cables
After you install new cables on your bike, you need to prevent loose ends. You can cap them, which is an ugly solution. I prefer soldering the cables. But also, you can gorilla glue them.
some thing super glue on paper towels, spray some accelerator and it gets so hot it’ll actually burn the towels. note I found this out by accident, then repeated to test for safety’s sake.
I have the same experience - have never been able to stick anything to anything with superglue, not even fingers. It sticks about as well as dried spit.
I’ve successfully used other glues in other applications, some of them where coming unstuck would produce significant risk to life and limb. So it’s not that I don’t know how to stick things together…