Back on OldRockets we had a discussion about which glues were used more than others, and I think most of us tended to use a yellow glue for general assembly. My favorite for a long time has been Franklin's Titebond II formulation, which has a great tack and dries relatively fast for a resin-based glue.

Recently, though, I picked up a bottle of their newest formulation, called Titebond III, and I think I'm liking it a little better. It does not tack up quite as well, and takes a little longer to cure, but it smooths out well with a wet finger and has a dusty-brown color instead of the orange-yellow of the TB2. When it has cured, the color of the glue is a translucent dark brown which tends to blend in better with the balsa wood and those brown-skin tubes from Estes.

It also doesn't seem to shrink up as much, but I haven't used it enough to judge fully. If true, this may be due to the slower cure rate.


Craig McGraw