Supergluing your fingers together

Surprising I've never done it before . Thumb and second finger firmly glued to either side of a connecctor. I tried methylated spirits first but no effect seemingly. Then dilute acetone as nail varnish remover. I was concerned about being too long on the skin so some cotton wool balls of acetone around both areas and a Q-tip soaked in acetone, with a rotating wedge-like motion, cautiously wedging skin from connector worked, but anyone elses experiences/advice for the next time? Anyone ever glued one hand to the other ?

Reply to
N_Cook
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I'd take it as a warning ;)

Reply to
Ron

I glue large cuts together. From what I've heard/read Cyanoacrylate was developed as a substitute for stitching wounds together on the battlefield during the Vietnam war. Little wonder it bonds skin so thoroughly. It's also used in its medical counterpart for some surgeries.

Back to gluing cuts. I was sharpening a large hunting knife and managed to cut the side of my right thumb to the bone. Cut was about 2.5cm and I could see bone and other structures underneath. Didn't look like I cut anything else and my thumb still worked ok so rather than getting it stitched I used a grade of cyano we use for guitar work. Got the bleeding stopped, wasn't much to begin with. Applied the glue and the cut was closed immediately. I put cloth tape around the joint so the thumb wouldn't flex as that was where the cut occurred. A week later the cut had healed well enough to remove the tape. Now I have a scar but it is a straight line. Be happy to upload a pic of it.

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Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

re sig Its also used for the chance of CSI lifting murderer's fingerprints off the skin off dead bodies. That is one of the reasons that a tent goes over a body outdoors. So heaters can go inside and evaporate Cyanoacrylate in a confined space.

Reply to
N_Cook

It was actually developed by Kodak in 1942, and was originally used to splice film.

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Reply to
William Sommerwerck

Well dammit I won't have that story to tell my grand children.

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Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

To dissolve cyanoacrylate you need (warm) water and patience. Or rather: patience and warm water as the most important ingredient should go first.

One other thing to notice: superglue may be a marble in some cases, it has very poor resistance to water.

We may be sloppy but not that stupid ;-) You may however drop by the nearest convent and ask 'Why?'.

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Kind regards,
Gerard Bok
Reply to
Gerard Bok

They do make a specific solvent for CA; we keep a bottle on hand at the shop. I have no idea what's in it, but it works very well on skin and other things, too. We do a couple of assembly jobs involving CA and by the time you've worked with it for a few hours at a time, you're pretty much guaranteed to have the stuff all over at least 9 of your fingers. The solvent cleans it right up.

Physiologically it's pretty innocuous stuff. Besides gluing cuts together well, I've heard of people mistaking it for a bottle of eye drops, and it hasn't done any real damage. Inconvenient to have your eye glued shut for a while though.

Reply to
Smitty Two

Keeping a bottle of superglue debonder around is a cheap investment. If you go to a hobby store which carries a selection of cyanoacrylate glues (usually of different viscosities and bonding speeds) you ought to find a supply of debonder in the same rack.

Only students of modern Zen koans.

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Dave Platt                                    AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page:  http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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Reply to
Dave Platt

Yup... although the off-the-shelf cyanoacrylate has some amount of toxicity to skin cells, and is not ideal for this purpose. A lot of people do use it as an emergency / field dressing, though... I understand that rock climbers often carry a tube.

Medical skin glue is based on a slightly different cyanoacrylate (butyl rather than methyl, IIRC) and is easier on the skin cells. It's not widely available, though, except as a medical or vetrinary adhesive in expensive single-use ampoules).

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Dave Platt                                    AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page:  http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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Reply to
Dave Platt

Per N_Cook:

IIRC, buncha years ago there was a robber somewhere who, after robbing somebody at an ATM machine, would super glue the victim's hands to the machine.

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PeteCresswell
Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

Hmm I'll have to remember that. Didn't seem to prove very toxic to my cut. Skin had mended around 10 days after. I probably wouldn't use it if I cut my finger off though :)

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Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

I know of a friend's friend whose disgruntled wife fed up with his drinking used CA to glue the man's penis to his stomach while he was passed out drunk.

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Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

The problem is that cyanoacrylate breaks down in the body into some toxic substances. I had surgery in 2002 where the surgeon used glue instead of sutchers or staples, a major improvement.

I have several types in my first aid box. The easiest to get is "Liquid Bandage" which is not cyanoacrylate based, but is good enough.

The above URL mentions that the Band-Aid brand of liquid bandage is cyanoacrylate based.

As for ungluing fingers, there is super glue remover. Lacking that, acetone or hot water works.

Of course, it's kinda difficult to type these URL's if your fingers are glued to a connector.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I've shortened them here if that is any assistance ;-)

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Adrian C
Reply to
Adrian C

I've used it in that way, as well, with no apparent adverse reactions. I suppose different people may have different levels of sensitivity to the stuff.

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Dave Platt                                    AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page:  http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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Reply to
Dave Platt

Absolutely. My mom is very allergic to aspirin. I'm not. I think as you said the same holds true for these type of chemicals. However in larger amounts other than a tiny droplet or two I spread along the 2.5cm cut all bets may be off. If you are a surgeon and are using it internally you would want the least possibilities of toxicity. If I were out in the field and gashed my hand wide open many miles from help I'd opt-in the CA :)

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Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

Acetone, and generally it won't hurt you if you don't inhale it all...

Reply to
PeterD

Has anybody ever found an application where superglue works well except on human skin? I find the crap brittle as hell and have yet to see anything glued with it last more than a few weeks before breaking.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

I use it on optical things often, because it's easily removed, like Duco cement except stronger and faster-setting. As long as you use just a little, it doesn't cause too much nasty frosting nearby.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

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