All of the people who have contributed to the Duco v Ambroid thing, might want to go on line and read the spec sheet from Devcon, the current owner of Duco, it gives strengths, cure time, and composition, which shows Duco to be a very basic nitrocellulose cement with 20 percent solids. It looks very similar to the old Testors "fast drying" and Sig cement.
Ambroid was originally a canvas canoe repair cement. I used to buy Ambroid by the pint can, unfortunately that is no longer available...it saved lots of money. Ambroid was also a simple cellulose nitrate glue. The amber color is just a dye. The MSDS shows it to be a cellulose cement. There is also an Ambroid varnish, which was used as a waterproofer for canvas canoes; it is still available, though hard to find. It was really just a thinned cement.
Actually the cellulose cements are all very similar, but due to hazard regulations and difficulty getting raw materials, probably have changed formulas somewhat over the years. I doubt there is much real difference in cured weight, as all that these glues do is evaporate off volatile solvents and leave behind the solid plastic material. Also no matter how "quick drying" they are, it still takes about 16 hours for the glue to reach its full strength.
As a foot note, while I was in college, many years ago, I was in the school flying club. A dismantled J-3 Cub was given to the school, and the flying club, along with some instructors in the aviation department, rebuilt the plane. We recovered the wings, and I was given the job of putting the nitrate shrinking dope, on the wings. What was interesting was the consistency of the dope was about as thick as model airplane cement. It had to be put on with a brush. I don't know who made it, as the cans were government surplus and didn't have brand markings, but I used the left over as glue on models, and it worked great.
"Mark F1diddler" wrote:
Pretty sure if there were much difference in weight/strength between these two, it would show up in our building. However, just read an online article by a Freeflighter which claimed "Ambroid is 20% lighter than Duco." a change according to marketing forces.
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Received on Sat Jun 30 2012 - 15:40:25 CEST
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