Crazy glue

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Placozoa
Posts: 92
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:41 am

Crazy glue

#1 Post by Placozoa » Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:12 am

I was having trouble with coverslips, they cause a lot of havoc with my samples. They squeeze the ciliates so they all encyst, they make the sample go anoxic, they are a pain in the butt. So, I added a drop of crazy glue to each corner of a coverslip so it wouldnt squish my ciliates and rotifers. It worked great.

I found small drops worked best, smaller than you get by making drops, so I would squeeze a teeny bit out and touch the coverslip with it. I found when going from one drop to the next it can leave a line of microdrips, so just go around the slip, never cross the slip between drops. I did find the microdrips make so-so lenses to further magnify the sample beyond 600x with real magnification, not empty, since the hardened drip is right next to the sample, the crazy glue has a higher refractive index than water, and is optically clear. None of my microdrips had exactly the right shape to work very effectively, and its not something I would bother experimenting with since it would wreck my coverslips. I also found that its a good idea to have cotton swabs on hand to get any extra glue off the slip quickly and cleanly. I was somewhat surprised at how long it took to dry, the damn stuff sticks your fingers together in an instant if you touch it.

I also tried taping a strip of plastic around an objective, removing the taped strip from the objective, and then crazy gluing it to a coverslip. I was successful in that I got no glue on my objective, or myself, its watertight, and can be slipped on and off the objective in a few seconds. Its not that difficult, dont have to worry about filling every little crack since surface tension will keep the water out of any small holes. Its not that useful though, since dipping a coverslip coated objective into water causes chaos and so does pulling it back out.

I wonder what crazy glue does as a mounting medium? It was invented for closing wounds during wartime, it should be good for organic material. Its not cheap though, and peramanent slides isnt something I am interested in yet.

Greg Howald
Posts: 1185
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:44 am

Re: Crazy glue

#2 Post by Greg Howald » Tue Feb 23, 2021 2:40 am

Not a good mounting. In fact crazy or super glue is especially dangerous stuff around optics or any glass surface. This glue gasses for up to 24 hours. It is used in criminal forensic science to bring out finger prints. Set the specimen on a piece paper. Put a glob of superglue on tin foil next to it. Cover with a bowl and leave it for twelve hours and the finger prints are clear and hard as a rock simply from the gassing effect. Get that on optics and you be very lucky not to have to throw the optics out.
Be very careful. You think it's dry. Put The slide on the stage. Get interupted and leave it there for a while. Then order new objectives.
Greg

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