Sigment or Ambroid

[Dave Nyce]

When we are building balsa planes, we use several types of glue. But there are some places where we would like to use a glue like Sigment, or the old Ambroid. I have found some glues now available that are of a similar type. They include UHU HART, Duco Cement, and VPS Am-Droid. (UHU has several varieties, so make sure to get the HART version.) The Duco and UHU are available on Amazon.  The Am-Droid is made by Volare Products.

https://volare-products.myshopify.com/products/vps-am-droid-cement

Dave

[Brett Buck]

When we are building balsa planes, we use several types of glue. But there are some places where we would like to use a glue like Sigment, or the old Ambroid. I have found some glues now available that are of a similar type. They include UHU HART, Duco Cement, and VPS Am-Droid. (UHU has several varieties, so make sure to get the HART version.) The Duco and UHU are available on Amazon.  The Am-Droid is made by Volare Products.

https://volare-products.myshopify.com/products/vps-am-droid-cement

Dave

   My limited experience is that Duco, SIGMENT, and UHU-Hart are pretty close to interchangable, Duco and UHU-Hart are as close to identical as they can be . SIGMENT is nearly the same with a slight amber tint. It wouldn't surprise me to find that all of them came from the same source and are packaged for the OEMs.  Ambroid is much thinner and has a distinctly different smell, probably the extra toluene, and more orange than amber. It makes sense because Ambroid was originally a finish that was intended to be brushed on the bottom of canoes, so you both need it thin enough to brush and have enough color to put it on evenly.

    SIGMENT, etc, tend to sit on the surface and not penetrate. Ambroid tends to run everywhere but soaks in more, sometimes leaving the joint starved. Either problem is solved by double-gluing.

    I haven't tried the alternate Ambroid, because I have very abundant supplies of all of the others, at the current rate, about 400 years worth. And, despite some naysayers, I also have mostly-used 30+ year-old tubes that are still good and haven't evaporated to amber dust!

    Brett

p.s. I always carry a small tube of Duco or UHU-Hart in my toolbox, because it works great for quick field repairs since it will stick almost equally to anything (metal, wood, most plastic) and the tubes are small. At the SWR a few years ago, I did the pull test and I found the wrap on my lines was starting to come unravelled. Twisted it back together, smeared on some Duco cement. In the desert, it was sticky enough in about 10 minutes to hold, off the the circle!

[Paul Smith]

Back in the day, Testers was for peasants and Ambroid was the glue of kings.

Old ladies fixed broken plastic junk with Duco.

Elmers and Titebond killed all the old MEK glues for me.  If you're old enough to buy beer you don't need airplane glue.

[Tim Wescott]

... Old ladies fixed broken plastic junk with Duco ...

Thinned with acetone, it's the glue of choice for indoor freeflight.

[Tim Wescott]

Do a web search on "nitrocellulose glue".  None of our favorite brands survive, but the stuff is out there.

[944_Jim]

I linked it in Mr.Dave's other thread...3Rivers' nitrocellulose fletching glue. I really think this is the stuff the AM-Droid seller is re-packaging.
https://www.3riversarchery.com/nitrocellulose-adhesive-fletching-glue.html

[Tom Luciano]

Back in the day, Testers was for peasants and Ambroid was the glue of kings.

When I was a kid the old timers said Testors "B" was really good.

 Ambroid-  I have a tube I purchased early 2000's, much thinner than the stuff from the seventies. Appeared a little lighter in color as well. If my memory serves me correctly

Tom

[frank williams]

I use the nitrocellulose from 3Rivers Archery.  I buy a quart at a time.  Sometimes it is clear.  Sometimes an Ambroid color.  Even if clear, after opened is gets yellow with time.  I thinks this is so close to Ambroid its got to be the same.  Pure nitrocellulose.  If it thickens, thin with acetone to the viscosity you like.  Like $30 a quart, I think.