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Sorry if this offends anyone. I'm not looking to win or anything, but could using hot glue instead of cyanoacrylate or other fancy stuff lead to a bridge that places at States? My team is very low on people, time, and money so we pretty much giving up hope of doing extraordinarily well on a few of our building events in exchange for keeping the hope of doing well at the rest.

rigor_boi wrote:Sorry if this offends anyone. I'm not looking to win or anything, but could using hot glue instead of cyanoacrylate or other fancy stuff lead to a bridge that places at States? My team is very low on people, time, and money so we pretty much giving up hope of doing extraordinarily well on a few of our building events in exchange for keeping the hope of doing well at the rest.

Not sure why you think asking a question would offend anyone. That's exactly what this forum is all about. If you don't have any alternatives, of course you can try hot glue. It's not going to work very well and going to be heavy and hard to put on, but it's better than nothing. CA isn't really 'fancy', it's just the generic name for Super Glue. You likely have some already in your house. If not it's available virtually anywhere (grocery stores included).

rigor_boi wrote:Sorry if this offends anyone. I'm not looking to win or anything, but could using hot glue instead of cyanoacrylate or other fancy stuff lead to a bridge that places at States? My team is very low on people, time, and money so we pretty much giving up hope of doing extraordinarily well on a few of our building events in exchange for keeping the hope of doing well at the rest.

If you're worried about cost, CA glue is cheap; probably cheaper than hot glue. Where I am, you can buy a few grams of it (which should last you for many bridges) for under five dollars.

Try using Duco. It replaced Ambroid which is no longer available. Not all stores carry it.

Wait darn would "Gorilla Super Glue" work out OK? I think we might still have some

rigor_boi wrote:Wait darn would "Gorilla Super Glue" work out OK? I think we might still have some

As Chalker said... Of course you can use it... Any type of glue can be used....
I believe the original Gorilla Glue is a polyurethane based glue, that foams up in the presence of moisture... Probably not the best choice for such small and delicate structures, because as the glue dries and foams, it may "relocate" the piece you are trying to glue. I have not tried the Gorilla brand super glue, so I'm not sure if it is polyurethane based or cyanacrylate based... Both are perfectly legal. I would say that 90% to 95% of the bridges built use either a super glue, or a diluted wood glue. We see a few that use duco, and a few that use hot glue.

But your question really wasn't about whether or not hot glue was legal, it was can you place at State using it... I hate to be blunt, but it is highly unlikely, as it is just too heavy and hard to control, resulting in a much heavier bridge than will be competitive, unless you happen to be in a State that has little competition.

rigor_boi wrote:Sorry if this offends anyone. I'm not looking to win or anything, but could using hot glue instead of cyanoacrylate or other fancy stuff lead to a bridge that places at States? My team is very low on people, time, and money so we pretty much giving up hope of doing extraordinarily well on a few of our building events in exchange for keeping the hope of doing well at the rest.

I stick my wood glue, whether it be Elmers, Tightbond, or Gorrila. It takes more time to dry (1-2 hours before moving it), but i think it performs better and cheap ($5 for 16-20 oz).

If you have a drawn out plan of your bridge profile, both sides can be fabricated in 2-D in 1-2 days, and then the 3rd and 4th you can go vertical by using legos as spacers and jigs to hold the two side frames in place.

rigor_boi wrote:Sorry if this offends anyone. I'm not looking to win or anything, but could using hot glue instead of cyanoacrylate or other fancy stuff lead to a bridge that places at States? My team is very low on people, time, and money so we pretty much giving up hope of doing extraordinarily well on a few of our building events in exchange for keeping the hope of doing well at the rest.

You can buy super glue (cyanoacrylate) at pretty much any hobby store, hardware store, etc. It's really cheap and it will definitely be worth it to use super glue instead of hot glue. Bridge is one of the few building events that you can actually build in one night, so I wouldn't give up all hope! Look around on the wiki (Best of Nationals pages), draw out a 1:1 scale diagram, and make sure your bridge is within specs. Good luck!

I wouldn't use hot glue. It tends to rip off the wood easily. Also, hot glue is much harder to get small amounts of, so the bridge is usually pretty heavy. If you want to use Gorilla Glue, then I would use paper weights, or pins on a foam board that hold the pieces together. Otherwise, like deholdgreve said, the wood can relocate while the glue forms.

-Bearasmith

Wait darn can I get away with using regular old Gorilla Glue? As long as I clamp it real good ad don't put too much, the expansion should be fine, right?