There are a few types of cyano activator, they mostly have similar active ingredients , generaly dissolved on 3 types of solvents, all activators can be used with all cyanos as all CA sets by the same mechanism, of course all manufacturers say to use there one, but all will work, some better than others
solvents in activator, we used to use tricloroethane, it was the best solvent but europe banned it with all CFC`s
Heptane , most common, very toxic , flammable, causes great whitening of cyano on cure loosing a lot of strength
Alcohol, usualy Isopropanol, low toxicity, very flammable, causes a lot of whitening and loss of strength of ca on cure due to absorbing moisture on cure
Acetone, dissolves our active ingredient (why we use it) low toxicity and flammable
The main active ingredient used industrialy is often a type of alkyl toluidine but these are very toxic and have a strong smell and theres a lot of different ones,some of the alkyl toluidines give a fast set but reduce strength a lot
there are a lot of other ones that can be used and many other ingredients in there as well, its all down to geting the right blend as with anything
We make some based on alkyl toluidines, such as our FasterBlaster(TM) , but our most used is the non whitening activator, this is the only one of its type as we have a patent pending on it. It contains a very low toxicity low odour active ingredient that causes no whitening or loss of strength on cure unlike all other cyano activators patented to date
I wouldnt bother trying to make an activator at home because the toxicity of the ingredients is such that you wouldnt want to, and if you get it wrong you can cause problems with the adhesive at a later date making the adhesive break down and go brittle with age and the ingredients cost a lot especialy in small amounts
Water as an accelerator should be avoided as using it causes an incorect molecular weight polymer to be formed, and excess moisture on cure will cause break down by hydrolosis of the polymer with a short time (maybe about a year), the same can be said of any alkaline powders such as bicarb of soda etc, they should never be used as the CA will break down with age particularly when anywere damp
For storage, CA should always be cold and dark, as cold and dark as possible, we reccomend the fridge , simply as its a way of us knowing the conditions, in the fridge you will get 7 year life unless you get a lot of contaminents into it
Out of the fridge its hit and miss, all down to the conditions, most people get at least 2 years just on the workbench. if cold in the dark 4 years minimum is normal