I managed to get some superglue drops on my desk. I would really like to take it off, however, I can’t think of anything handy that will dissolve cyanoacrylate. Any suggestions?
Acetone is the standard solvent, but that might damage the finish of your desk.
What is the desk surface composed of? Is it a finished wood, a laminate, or something else?
Unless your desk has a (real) wood, metal or glass top finish you’re pretty screwed. Acetone is going to beat up most plastics used in desktop finshes and laminates.
I’m not sure what exactly it is. It’s standard dorm room furnature, so I’m sure it’s not exactly high quality. I doubt anyone will care, but I’m still trying mostly because it annoys me. I already treied acetone, and while it didn’t ruin the finish, it also didn’t work.
Careful scraping with a razor will work on many hard surfaces. Also, the dried glue is rather brittle (depending on formulation), so you can often get it to crack and flake by applying pressure to the surface with a hard, blunt object.
I’ve had success removing cyanoacrilic glue with fingernail-polish remover, which I suppose is mostly acetone. But astro is right: The solvent will spoil the finish and you’ll have to do it over.
Fine sandpaper? Anything that will remove the glue will probably also remove the finish so you have to refinish the spots anyway.
check your bottle. I hardly see see acetone based nail polish remover anymore.
Then again, i’m not a girl.
You can buy acetone at beauty supply stores. Non-acetone nail polish removers seem to be the norm at Walgreens, but professional-catering stores still carry the real stuff. It’s what they use to disolve acrylic fingernails, as well as the glue that holds them on. It does take a long time to disolve (15 minutes or more on the nails), so maybe you just didn’t have it on long enough.
But, if you have tried real acetone and it hasn’t worked, than physical force is probably your best bet. If you hold an ice cube to the glue spot it will get cold enough to become more brittle. Then a *quick *scrape with the side of a credit card should flick it off.
Same technique works for chewing gum in the carpet, just so’s you know.
I seem to recall a superglue remover that would debond the superglue from surfaces and was itself removable with water.
This could be the stuff.
http://www.loctiteproducts.com/products/detail.asp?catid=15&subid=35&plid=197