Craft & DIY

#18 · Apply glue precisely

Dip the tip into PVA, superglue, or wood glue to apply exactly where you need it - far more accurate than squeezing from the bottle.

The nozzle on a PVA bottle is designed for enthusiasm. For model kits, jewellery repairs, card-making and anything where a millimetre of misplaced glue ruins the piece, you want to take glue off the bottle and put it exactly where you mean to. A chopstick tip is the applicator.

How to do it

1. Squeeze a small puddle of glue onto a scrap of foil, an old lid or a piece of baking paper - never work straight from the bottle.
2. Dip only the last few millimetres of the chopstick tip in.
3. Touch it to the work rather than dragging, and let surface tension pull the glue off the wood.
4. For a thin even film rather than a dot, snap the chopstick and use the flat wedge the break leaves.
5. Wipe the tip on a rag between applications, before the glue starts to skin.

Why it works

How much glue a tool picks up is governed by the surface area you dip and how well the glue wets it. A chopstick tip is small and only mildly absorbent, so it carries a droplet big enough to bond and too small to run - which is precisely the window that a squeeze bottle cannot hit.

If it isn't working

• Glue strings and cobwebs everywhere: it has started to cure on the stick. Use a fresh one.
• The dot spreads further than you wanted: you dipped too deep. Only the very tip should be wet.
• Nothing transfers at all: the glue is too thick or has skinned over. Stir the puddle and try again.

Tips & warnings

• Fresh chopstick for every superglue job. Cured cyanoacrylate on the tip will drag lumps into the next repair.
• For gluing spectacle frames or a snapped model part, a chopstick and a puddle is genuinely the professional method, not a compromise.
• Keep a few snapped halves in the craft drawer - the wedge end is more useful than the point for most jobs.