# Tinting CA Glue



## Driftwood52 (Jan 26, 2011)

I am using gel CA to fill in cracks, can it be tinted?


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## ed4copies (Jan 26, 2011)

It's more successful using tinted epoxy.

I have never tinted CA, but some say they have--may get someone to give you their insight.  I get instant stone.


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## Cincinnati (Jan 26, 2011)

Driftwood52 said:


> I am using gel CA to fill in cracks, can it be tinted?



Probably, but you'd have to get it mixed before it set. Nail polish is acrylic. Perhaps you can mix it with the CA.


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## aggromere (Jan 26, 2011)

are you fixing a crack in wood or a plastic?  Although I have never tried it on a Resin or acrylic blank, on wood I simply fill the crack with sawdust and shavings from the wood and then put a drop of thin ca on it.  I do this till I build it up above the surface then turn or sand back down.  It's hard to tell where the crack was when I do this.

If it is a patterned acrylic the same process might work using dust or shavings from the acrylic, but not sure if it would work on a solid color acrylic.

Just my 2 cents worth.


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## Monty (Jan 26, 2011)

Check out this thread I made a while back - http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=63898


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## Driftwood52 (Jan 27, 2011)

I'm filling in cracks in stabilized driftwood, most cracks are dark brown to black. Filling with the sawdust generated will not match up.  I like the epoxy idea.  I'll try that next.  Thanks for the input.


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## IPD_Mrs (Jan 27, 2011)

You can also use a black crushed stone to fill the voids and then CA it.


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## ed4copies (Jan 27, 2011)

Another successful technique I learned here (IAP) is to use coffee, ground very fine and drip on thin CA--that will fill nicely, if you want a dark brown fill.

And the bonus:   SMELLS great until you add the CA!!!


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## IPD_Mrs (Jan 27, 2011)

Good job Ed.  I forgot all about doing that.  Works real good when you need a brownish color.


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## ssajn (Jan 27, 2011)

Coffee grounds work well. If you use coffee it seems to work best if you use used grounds, that way a lot of the oils are gone. There's a lot of things you can use to fill. I've used sawdust, brass key shavings, embossing powder etc. With the sawdust I save some of different sawdusts so I can match color if I want to.
On smaller projects I use ca and larger things like bowls you can use epoxy.


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## Driftwood52 (Jan 27, 2011)

Excellent suggestions.  Thanks.


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## MyronW (Feb 24, 2011)

You might also try mixing a wee bit of Blendal powder into the CA. In a previous life as a furniture repair guy, I grew to love this stuff.
You can get it from various online sources. Don't try to buy direct from Mohawk unless you want 2 lbs of each color!


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## MyronW (Feb 26, 2011)

*Wow! I'm on to something here!*

I wish I would have known about this when I was repairing furniture. I could have used it many times and made more money. Oh well.

Out of curiosity, I went out to the shop tonight and gave a little Blendal love to some gel CA. I mixed a little bit of metallic gold pigment into a blob of gel. I was expecting it to resist wetting out, but it accepted the pigment and mixed right up. I put some dabs here and there and shot it with accelerator, and it did just what it is supposed to. Now I have metallic gold spots on my bench dogs.

I noticed that the blob left on the precision paper plate mixing surface started to thicken after a couple of minutes, probably because of the nucleating effect of the pigment particles, so there is a short pot life. Maybe 4 or 5 minutes.

With the wide variety of colors available, including the primaries and black and white, this will be a nice way to add accents, color rings, hide blemishes, or even fill in engraved words or names. 

Tomorrow I think I'll make a test plaque of different colors and post photos. I have about 10 - 12 colors, and I can mix some as well.

One tip- if you want to hide a repair, use at least two or more colors, including the lightest, or background color, and a darker color or two to match the rest of the area. I would mix the colors separately and then put them in the repair, only slightly mixing them. A solid color repair stands out like a sore thumb, but a swirly, mottled one will disappear. (Takes practice!)

If you can't get a nice matching repair, don't even try. Go for a contrasting color and call it a feature!:wink:

Myron


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## crabcreekind (Feb 26, 2011)

if you mix up clear epoxy and put some fine wood dust in it. the epoxy will be the same color as your blank


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