New Water-Based Contact Cement From Tandy

[particle]

Anyone tried it? I bought a bottle of it and really like it so far - curious if anyone else has tried it yet? The price is friggin' ridiculously expensive... Like, stupid expensive. But, I really like that it's non-toxic and quite easy to apply. Bonding strength seems pretty good as well.

[electrathon]

Is this differant than the stuff they have had for some time? It looked like white glue but was a contact glue.

Aaron

[particle]

Not really sure - the guy at my local Tandy said it was a new product, just hit the shelves. I'm not sure what "Bianchi" used, but I know he talked about a similar product on his video. The Tandy guy said it came out of Italy... I paid around $56 I believe after my discount for 1 liter. Ouch!

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/Leather-Cement-Glue/Water-Based-Contact-Adhesive/2532-04.aspx

[Spinner]

Wow...how they plan to stay in business charging prices like that is beyond me. It would seem to me that a water based product would be cheaper to manufacture based on the fact that water is almost free, I'm sure they pay something for shipping, etc.) whereas some solvents can be quite expensive and definitely cost more than water but yet they are charging $1.66 per oz. versus Barge which is $0.53 per oz. at most places. The process to make the stuff can't be that technologically challenging that they have to charge more than 3x the price for the same amount.

[pete]

Anyone tried it? I bought a bottle of it and really like it so far - curious if anyone else has tried it yet? The price is friggin' ridiculously expensive... Like, stupid expensive. But, I really like that it's non-toxic and quite easy to apply. Bonding strength seems pretty good as well.

You're right. That is ridiculous. Take it back and get a can of weldwood cement. Even leatherweld works fine.

pete

[particle]

Weldwood is toxic - looking for a non-toxic alternative to the Barges I've been using since I do most of my work at night with my garage door closed (to keep the bugs out of my garage - attracted to all my shop lights. Leatherweld isn't a contact cement, and keeping pressure on my holsters (particularly my avengers) isn't really a good option, so I'd rather not use a product like that.

I do really like the new water-based contact cement form Tandy - but would love to find an equal alternative that isn't so dang'd expensive if anyone knows of one.

[Northmount]

I have used LePage PRES-TITE GREEN water based contact cement. Non-toxic, non-flammable, low odour. About $10 for a pint. It is a little slower drying than the nasty solvent based, and gives just a tiny bit of chance to reposition if you haven't gone too far, but not very much.

CTG

[particle]

Thanks CTG - I will keep my eyes out for that product. They show Lowes and Home Depot as suppliers, but I didn't see any on Home Depot's website. I'll check next time I'm in either of the two stores.

Regarding the slower drying - the Tandy stuff is the same way. Not prohibitively slow, but definitely slower than the solvent based products.

[mojoewrkn]

Particle,

This is the same stuff as the Lepage, loctite is the same company:

http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/a_cntct_cc/overview/Loctite-Contact-Cement.htm

[particle]

Awesome! Thanks mojoe!

[ChuckBurrows]

Barge has also recently developed a very low VOC contact cement - see their website....

[steelhawk]

Weldwood has a water based contact cement product but I haven't tried it. The local hardware store only has the one quart can and I haven't wanted to spend the money to get something that might not work. I've asked before, and no one here has used it.

[particle]

Okay - I haven't tried any of the other alternatives mentioned in this thread yet. But, I wanted to share my current experience with the Tandy EcoWeld Water Based Contact Adhesive.

Bonding strength seems very good. My gut feeling is that it doesn't stiffen the leather quite as much as Barges does, but I can't prove that.

It's easy to apply and spread - it brushes on the leather much easier than the Barges contact cement I was previously using. It doesn't take terribly long to dry, so application time is almost a good as the solvent-based cements, provided you don't brush it on too thick. Since it goes on thin, the product seems to last longer than an equal quantity of Barges.

Now, here's the interesting part that I'm hoping some of our overseas friends can help with (apparently it's been in use for a while overseas and just recently made it to the US)...

When I purchased the cement, I poured some of it into the plastic dispenser that Tandy sells that has the adjustable brush built into the screw-on lid. I kept this dispenser and the original container in my garage, right next to each other. My garage is insulated, so it hasn't gotten excessively hot - probably never above 95 degrees. After a couple weeks, the dispenser cement started smelling sour, while the original container smelled fine. About a month after initially pouring it into the dispenser, the dispenser cement smelled so bad I almost thew up... I ended up pouring about half a pint down the drain... The original container still smells fine. From now on, I'll only pour a tiny bit into the dispenser, then rinse it out when I'm done. I'm not sure what this stuff is made of, or what made it go sour. Interestingly, even though it stunk so badly, it still worked just fine - the goes almost entirely away once it dries.

Does anyone know what would cause the stuff to go sour? Could it be a combination of the dispenser brush being in the humid/damp environment (from the water-based cement) that caused the brush to mildew, which introduced mold into the cement? I'm grasping for straws - if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear it.