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Apollo Takes Your Superglue To New Heights

By Jordan Ross

When it comes to MacGyvering, the only thing better than duct tape — besides paper clips and gum — is superglue.  Working in special effects shops, I picked up a trick to make this miracle tool even more versatile. Its short name is zip-kick or zip-kicker;  in fancy terms it’s a cyanoacrylate accelerator, and it allows you to build up large quantities of glue and have them harden very fast, so you can make fillets.

Zip-kick also comes in handy if you’re working on a project and you just can’t wait for the superglue to set up.  Yeah, I know, impatient — but if you’re gluing a lot of small parts, it’s a no-brainer.  You can buy in bulk and fill your own spray bottles, or you can buy pre-filled bottles.

Cyberbond makes all kinds of great accelerators — my personal favorite, the Apollo BLAST 6001 accelerator, seems to have been updated to 6001H — but it’s kind of hard to find so you’ll have to do some searching or check your local specialty shops.  I found one site that’s offering 2oz bottles for $5.57.

Cyberbond [Official Site]


6 Responses to “Apollo Takes Your Superglue To New Heights”

  1. Pepster Says:

    Check the labels/MSDS - Some of these are just rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl) - with a cheesy applicator and 10x markup.

  2. BigEdJr Says:

    I use this for building RC airplanes. One thing I have notice though is that it tends to cause the glue to bubble and lessens the strength of the glue joint…not that a super-glued joint is all that strong to begin with, but I do let the joint setup on their own when it is a little more critical type of joint.

  3. _Jon Says:

    Can I get high faster off the fumes?

  4. DIY Forums Says:

    Extra Super Glue…

    I am not a big glue fan, it tends to be the least desirable and strong way to connect things, and given a choice I would much rather go for a mechanical joint,especially in no porous materials like glass and metals.Having said that, I must admit that I…

  5. Kirstin Says:

    Sounds good - if its going to work fast why shouldn’t it work even faster.
    @ BigEdJr - the faster a glue cures the weaker it is in the long run - if you are looking for strength you should be using slow drying glues.

  6. Jim K. Says:

    Oh boy, a way to glue my fingers together even faster! Seriously though, this would be great where I work as we often have to make quick fixes on the fly and anything that helped speed up the repair would be welcomed.

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