do you guys have any tips on keeping CA glue bottles from getting all crudded up?

I don't have a tip for keeping them from *getting* all crudded up, but I keep all my old bottles and throw the caps in a jar of acetone for a couple days. I take 'em out and let them dry on a paper towel and throw them in a bin. When my current bottle gets crudded up, I just swap the cap and throw the crudded up one in the acetone. Works for me.

I usually "tap" the bottom of the CA bottle flat onto the building board immediately after use and this aids in keeping the CA liquid from staying up at the tip of the applicator. I use the small applicators from Carl Goldberg and they work nicely. Dropping the tips into acetone, as posted above, is a nice idea. Sometimes I just wipe the CA tip clean with an acetone dampened cloth after use and most all the residual "crud" is removed; if done quickly and without waiting too long the CA doesn't harden onto the CA tip as it would if you waited a few days.

Soft landings,

Joe

Use the little bit of teflon tube pushed down into the tip of the nozzle. Cut the teflon on a pretty long angle. The tip of the end will develop blobs due to picking up dust and such but you can pull that off. Meanwhile the long angle slanted opening generally stays clear.

It also helps if you let a drop form on the end of the tube and touch only the drop to the joint and let it wick away from contact with the tip of the tubing.

It's simply all about keeping the bottle and the end of the tube clean as possible. It also helps if you squeeze just a little BEFORE tipping it up so that there's some suction to draw the stuff in the tube back into the bottle rather than it continuing to bubble out of the tube eve after you set it down.

Don't let the tip touch the work piece. Ever since I started being very conscious about this, I haven't really had a problem with the tips clogging. This is where a lot of the "crud" comes from. Also as BMathews said, use a bit of Teflon tubing for thin CA. I also use extended larger tips for Med CA. This way I replace those when necessary. I picked up about 200 in a bag at Toledo a few years ago. I think they are just laboratory pipette tips. By not letting the tip touch the work piece I think I've used about 2 of those extended tips since I got them.

Great tips guys thanks!