CA/Superglue Fire Danger

[BarkingSpyder]

Russ and Marc may already be familar with this, but I recently had a scary accident with CA (cyanoacrylic).
I use some old automotive carpets as portable cushions for working on slot-cars and electronics.
Last week I had some CA spill out of the bottle while using a toothpick to apply a tiny drop to my Thunderslot. Concentrating on the glue job, I took a few seconds to right the CA bottle.
As I was reaching for it white smoke started billowing off the carpet, and I could feel the heat on my palm as it passed over the area. I used a rag to smother out the smoke to delay the spread so I had time to get my extinguisher!
Luckily I did not need the extinguisher, but the intense heat was felt through the rag! I was also lucky to not inhale any of the smoke.

Apparently the reaction was due to the carpet containing a mix of Cotton and poly-blends. If the carpet was pure plastic polymers the CA would have just created a flat spot where it glued the fibres together. It also explains why the blended shop rag I used also got super hot, I’m lucky it did not catch fire also.
SO-
— do not use Q-Tips to apply or clean up CA/Superglue
— do not wipe up CA with nose or bath tissue which may include some cotton for softness
— do not clean up CA with any cotton based rages or other materials
— do not use cotton based gloves when playing with superglue
— remove superglue from your wife or girlfriend’s night-stand :O
** Wear googles or lab glasses to prevent CA from causing Corneal scratches, Masks to prevent sinus and throat problems

STAY SAFE and peace-out, Capt Obvious and Major Buzzkill

[porsche917]

Mark,

That is crazy.  I have never heard of that before.  Happy to hear it did not get any worse.

Marty

[chapracer65]

Mark

I agree; that is crazy!  I have been using CA for 50 years and never heard this.  I did a search for “CA glue fire danger” and your post was the #4 result, after articles about California fires.  Further research also said in addition to cotton, it can react with wool.  I looked  it up on Wikipedia and saw that it was discovered at B.F. Goodrich in 1941.

Russell

[BarkingSpyder]

…so this problem was “discovered at B.F. Goodrich in 1941.”!?!?

And for all of Randy’s “inside stories” of B.F. Goodrich this is the One he forgot? //love ya randy!

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