Your First Bond

TL;DR: Sand both mating surfaces (150 grit, swirls). Slather Gloop! on BOTH surfaces. Press together with a little twist within 30–60 seconds. Clamp for 15 minutes. Full POWER in 24-ish hours. Ooze around the seam = you did it right. Don't touch it! We'll deal with it in Guide 3.

Step 1: Sand (or don't — Scientist's choice)

Hit both mating surfaces with 150-grit sandpaper in swirling motions until they turn dull. You're doing two jobs at once: clearing away oils and contaminants, and knocking down the little print artifacts (over-extrusion, ringing, elephant's foot) that would otherwise hold your surfaces apart.

Painted or previously glued? Sand ALL of it off. Gloop! welds plastic. Paint is not plastic, and neither is that old super glue residue. If the chemistry can't touch bare polymer, there's no weld... and some coatings will stop Gloop! from curing entirely. Get back to virgin plastic first. (The full story lives in the FAQ.)

Dull = ready. And here's a neat trick: when the Gloop! goes on and the color and shine come back, that's the solvent actively reacting with your plastic. Consider it a free compatibility test.

The Beancounter-approved alternative: don't sand... just use more Gloop! Dab on heavy coats and stipple: push the brush tips straight into the surface, working the Science Sauce down into the plastic. Keep the brush wet, keep stippling. This is genuinely the strongest method. It just uses more Gloop!, which is why the Beancounters want us to mention it. You use more Gloop!, they get to sell you more Gloop!... everybody wins!

🖼 ARTWORK — Split panel. Left: gloved hand sanding a cube face in small swirl arrows, surface going from shiny to matte ("DULL = READY"). Right: brush stippling straight down into a surface, purple dots being worked in, labeled "OR: MORE GLOOP! (stronger, no sanding)". Beancounter character in the corner grinning at a calculator.

Step 2: Slather that Science Sauce

Apply Gloop! to BOTH mating surfaces. Be generous, but you don't need a flood. Even coverage beats deep puddles. Start your application in the center and let the pressure spread it outward (edge application = maximum ooze and can be significantly messier; more on ooze below).

You have 30–60 seconds. Gloop! reacts immediately: when the surface goes from shiny to matte, a skin is forming and the reactive good stuff is consuming itself. Work quickly. (Pro tip from the lab: cool Gloop! = longer working time. A cold bottle buys you extra seconds on tricky assemblies. Place your Gloop! bottle in a cup of ice water 10–15 minutes before use.)

Brush etiquette, IMPORTANT: your brush picks up dissolved plastic as you work. Wipe the excess onto the part, then clean the brush on a paper towel. Never stir dissolved plastic back into the bottle. Enough contamination can kick off a runaway reaction in the bottle, and nobody wants a bottle that's making its own decisions.

🖼 ARTWORK — Two-panel. Panel 1: brush slathering both cube faces, center-out arrows, a countdown ring showing "30–60 sec", surface corner shifting shiny→matte with a small "SKIN FORMING" flag. Panel 2: brush being wiped on a paper towel with a big green check; brush hovering over the open bottle with a red X and a tiny bottle with cartoon angry eyes labeled "runaway reaction".

Step 3: Squeeze — with a twist

Press the parts together firmly and give them a slight twisting motion as they mate. The twist spreads the Gloop! and breaks any skin that started forming. This gets the fresh reactive sauce into every corner of the joint.

See ooze squeezing out around the seam? That's the sound of success. Squeeze-out is proof of full coverage. Do NOT wipe it. Not with a towel, not with a swab, not with your glove. Wiping smears dissolved plastic across your beautiful print and turns a 10-second cleanup into an afternoon spent sanding and painting. Leave it. No matter how badly you want to touch it. The Gloop! will harden, and once it does, we slice it off cleanly in Guide 3.

Gloop! bonds MUST be made while BOTH surfaces are wet. If they started drying out before the joint was mated, the bond may be noticeably weaker or it may completely fail. If you notice that things seem a little dry, just slather some more of that Science Sauce on the surfaces.

🖼 ARTWORK — Hands pressing two cubes together with a curved twist arrow; small beads of purple squeeze-out at the seam with a starburst tag "GOOD SIGN!"; ghosted "don't" inset of a towel approaching the seam with a red X.

Step 4: Give 'em the CLAMPS!!!

Clamp this… clamp that… Bada-climp. Bada-clamp! Keep pressure on for at least 15 minutes. Clamps are ideal, but holding the parts, weighing them down, or clever gravity all count. Bonus science: curing Gloop! shrinks slightly, pulling your joint even tighter. Naturally, clamping pressure locks that advantage in.

Step 5: Hurry up and wait…

Small parts grab fast. Like minutes-fast. It's stupid cool how fast it works! No more activator sprays or mixing epoxies and smearing globs.

While the Gloop! reacts fast, the full chemical weld develops as the solvent finishes evaporating and diffusing out through the plastic. On a typical joint that takes up to 24 hours. Making cosplay pieces or jewelry? Give it the full day before stress-testing, painting, or wearing. Patience, young Gloopie... go grab lunch, start an epic adventure, visit the Moon, or just fast-forward time.

Design note for the engineers: standard 2-wall prints Gloop! just fine. For functional, take-a-beating bonds, print your mating areas with 3+ walls. More solid plastic at the joint = more plastic to weld.

Step 6: Enjoy the POWER of Gloop!

The Scientists STRONGLY recommend not Glooping an immovable object to an unstoppable force. Breaking the physics of the universe is on you.

🖼 ARTWORK — Triumphant elephant (label canon) standing on the bonded cubes; small "24 HR" badge with a flexing arm; tiny fine print "physics violations not covered under warranty".

Next: that hardened ooze around your seam → Cleaning Up Seams →