About a week ago I managed to get some gorilla glue, just a thin film that I missed on cleanup, on the webbing between my 2nd and 3rd fingers. It still feels a little tackey there. What can I use to remove the glue. Acetone, MEK, paint thinner or what?

Thanks in advance,

Bill

any of those should work. Even a good scrubbing with a mechanics soap should do the trick. Odd that its been tacky all this time. Ive gotten GG on my skin a lot and it dries fairly quickly on my oily skin. Sure its not sap?

As soon as I work with gorilla glue and I know I've gotten some on my hands, I immediately (after making sure whatever I'm gluing is taken care of) wash my hands with isopropyl alcohol -rubbing alcohol. It takes the gorilla glue right off. If you're like me then you'll need to use some girly lotion or your fingers will start to crack and bleed after too much alcohol rinsing.

I just finished a project that required a lot of GG (PU). My fingers turned black and I couldn't get it off with anything short of peeling off the skin. It took a week till I could strip bits and pieces of skin to get back to normal. Here a pic...

Yup, been there! As noted, before it starts to cure, rubbing alcohol will remove it. But after it's cured, it's pretty much time that takes it off. A week of working and washing is usually enough to get my hands back to normal......

Wifes nail polish remover is the best for removing GG glue after it has set. I think acetone would do the job, but may be rougher on your skin.

Before it is set most any paint thinner will remove the glue but then you need soap and water to remove the paint thinner.

acetone will also you help find any and all tiny cuts in your skin, in a VERY painfull sort of way >_<

Acetone also migrates through the skin taking with it whatever it has in solution........not a good thing to do frequently.

Isopropyl alcohol when the glue is still wet was very effective for me just yesterday; took the uncured gorilla glue right off. Anything that dries will usually sluff off with washing and general working over the course of a few days. These, of course, are just personal anecdotes and your experience may vary. One thing I will advise with all certainty is do not rub your eyes with uncured glue on your fingers.

Isopropyl alcohol also dissolves all of your skins natural oils and makes your hands very likely to crack and bleed and feel awful. So here's what I do, I keep a bottle of alcohol (both isopropyl and a curious mixture of barley, hops, and sugar ) on my workbench. I soak a paper towel in the alcohol and as I'm gluing if it gets on my fingers, I finish assembling and clamping and taping whatever I'm working on, then immediately use the paper towel to clean off the glue. I also use the paper towel for cleaning the tip of the gorilla glue bottle so that it doesn't wind up gluing itself shut and I get full use of the bottle instead of winding up with 1/4 of a bottle that has a hacked up destroyed tip from continually trying to dig out cured chunks of glue. Afterwards, use some baby oil or hand lotion to protect from wrecking your skin from the loss of natural oils.

Originally Posted by AndrewMcD

Acetone also migrates through the skin taking with it whatever it has in solution....

I am interested to learn more about that. Can you provide any links to source data/studies?

Acetone can be found as an ingredient in a variety of consumer products ranging from cosmetics to processed and unprocessed foods. Acetone has been rated as a GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) substance when present in beverages, baked foods, desserts, and preserves at concentrations ranging from 5 to 8 mg/L. Additionally, a joint U.S-European study found that acetone’s "health hazards are slight."[

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone

bz1mcr-
My comment was based on the comments made by a department safety officer giving a chemical safety lecture to University department members. As is typical in this sort of presentation case studies and hard numbers were not provided.

Here is a link to the MSDS for acetone. As you read through you'll find comments that acetone is potentially toxic when absorbed through the skin. I'll leave it to the individual user to ascertain the degree of risk they believe the various concentrations of acetone they come into contact with poses. I'm neither qualified nor interested in an in depth discussion of the hazards of various household products and I do accept quite readily that the typical concentrations we as hobbyists see are likely not a problem in small infrequent doses.

I'm prone to caution and apologize for being unable to provide hard evidence to support what I was taught at a Physics department safety meeting.


A link to an acetone MSDS http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927062
Andrew

Ok, I know all of you have sandpaper. It does work just fine to remove most of the GG. No need to go down to sensitve skin at all, its just a good way to remove the thicker build up.
Gloves are a good idea here! The old ounce of prevention schtick don't ya know.

If you put a good thick loation on before you start glueing with gorrila glue or ca ,they do not like to stick to it. Once done glueing just wash up as normal and it should all come off. joe

Thank you one and all. I've been using isopropyl alcohol for fast clean-up, has worked most of the time if I'm fast enough.. But trying to remove stuff that has simi-dried, that's another story. I'll try the acetone. The LDS that they use on mice is 10 - 100 times the amount that we would normally be exposed to. I'm not going to take a bath in it! I believe acetone is the active ingredient in finger nail polish remover, it's just a little thicker. If you run out of CA debonder, raid your wife's makeup drawer. Sssssh, I didn't tell you that.

I have some Foam Tac ordered, maybe it will work as good as Gorilla Glue and be easier to cleanup after.

Thanks,

Bill

Before it is cured mineral spirits paint thinner is the best thing I have found for dissolve or remove polyurethane glue. Once the glue has cured there is nothing tha I know of that will dissolve it. I suspect that there are chemicals that will dissolve PU glue but I would bet that anything that will dissolve PU will also do a real number on skin as well.

As has been pointed out before once PU glue has cured only mechanical action will do anything. It MAY help speed up the sloughing off process if you rub your favorite flavor of vegetable oil onto the offending area. I find that this does help to remove PU glue that is partly cured. Rub vegetable oil into the area vigorously and wash off with dish soap once the glue is as removed as it is going to get...

J.P.