Results!

- When dealing with superglue, make sure you do not get any on yourself if you are wearing cotton clothing. Superglue reacts with cotton, and it will burn! This will also cause the burning cotton article to stick to your skin... nasty.
- Generally, try not to glue yourself to yourself... If this happens, acetone (commonly found in nail polish remover) is a good solvent.
- Make sure not to inhale the fumes, which can be pretty toxic. Fume in a well ventilated area.
_ Make sure to use a low-level heat source, such as the coffee plate warmer I have used in the video. Using a hot plate instead can cause the superglue to catch fire, thus releasing poisonous gases.

Comments

[tbenefi33]

Hmmm could you use a plexiglass box ?

[Pudge]

Does anyone know if the public can buy Luminol Testing fluid?

[Insaneisfun]

Yes unitednuclear.com

[cooldog]

is it possible to do it with only 1 fan in the corner

[sam noyoun]

yes it even works without the fans.

[wlou]

This needs to be done in a place that is well ventilated after your experiment, as the fumes are toxic. Also if you were contacts, you need to wear safety goggles, as the fumes can react to your contacts turning them white and gluing them to your eye balls. Often in movies, like National Treasure and Beverly Hills Cop, they show the superglue turnnig the prints purple for brown, this is for movie effect. In real life the superglue adheres to the prints and turns them white. You can over glue prints and end up with white blobs. After gluing you can dust the print and lift it with graffite powder, and then lift the print and place it onto a lift card. The super glue print will still remain on the item as it is now permanent. Dead bodies can also be superglued for prints, but ussually only with the consent of the medical examiner. In that case, it would need to be down in the field, as moving the body can destroy prints (moving the body from different temps, etc)

[trebuchet03]

Hrmmm... I thought I posted this a few days ago... Must have forgotten to submit... So, the bad news is... My car has a broken window - but the good news is, I GOT A FREE SCREWDRIVER!! Yeah, someone tried to rob my car. Probably looking for an iPod in my center console... Must have been disappointing to find cassette tapes :D So I decided to fume the screwdriver... Just for fun. After all, it says explicitly on the Oakland police website that there will be "no response" -- bugger. To my surprise - I found half a fingerprint on this grubby driver. And I wasn't even expecting that given the condition and crap on this thing... Cool :)

[rocketbat]

oh wow! what an idiot! he left such a beautifull screwdriver! did he actualy take anything? i think you should put treasure in your car and wait for him to come back. :~D

[trebuchet03]

Nothing, as far as I can tell. And if I can't tell, it probably doesn't matter. There was only two things items worth stealing (other than car components). 1. My Trip Computer 2. Fire Extinguisher (you can see it poking out in the second image) I had a few things in the trunk, but s/he wouldn't have been able to open it :p

[sam noyoun]

Great post Trebuchet... The other thing with fiming is: even if a fingerprint doesn't show to the eye (you can only see half a fingerprint ; a lab might still be able to identify it.

[theque]

Awsome Instructable! *click* a favorite now!

[trebuchet03]

One such toxic fume happens to be cyanide -- The cyan and cyanacrylic :p Nice instructable :)

[stone3408]

I'm a crime scene investigator and this is almost exactly how we do it in the real world. Two important points though. 1 cyanide gas is only formed if the glue temp rises above 400 degrees F 2 If you powder the cotton ball with baking soda the exothermic reaction is increased and items in a small space will fume in about 5 minutes. This is our preferred method for field fuming as it requires no power source.

[ironlizard]

1 cyanide gas is only formed if the glue temp rises above 400 degrees F

This is completely incorrect. Regular Super Glue will release these fumes in quantity at 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

[trebuchet03]

1 cyanide gas is only formed if the glue temp rises above 400 degrees F

That really depends on the type of glue used (there's quite a few different formulations). Super Glue/Krazy Glue are methyl-2-cyanoacrylate, and their flash points are above 100F but never above 200F. It's structure is not as stable and will gas before other formulations.

2-octyl cyanoacrylate is what you'll find for more professional uses (wood work, hospitals, etc.). It has stronger molecular bonds -- so it doesn't decompose/cure as quickly (but it's still pretty fast), this makes it a little more heat resistant before it's been cured. After it's cured, its bond is a bit stronger and more durable. It's likely this is what you're using, unless you're using branded super glue or krazy glue or some other base consumer product.

[ironlizard]

Does the bottle in the video look like hospital grade super glue to you? I didn't think so. A spoonful of superglue makes the hydrogen cyanide go down.

[trebuchet03]

Does the bottle in the video look like hospital grade super glue to you? I didn't think so.

Yeah... did you read my first three sentences? I didn't think so....

[Kiteman]

Very nice. Sort of Detective McGyver.

[FrenchCrawler]

Nice They did something like this on the movie "National Treasure".

[sam noyoun]

I saw that movie, but I can't remember that scene...

[FrenchCrawler]

Here's a Yahoo Answer I just found.

[FrenchCrawler]

He did it on the wine glass that the woman (she was in charge of the museum) was holding. I can't remember exactly how he did it. I think he placed the glass in a zip lock bag along with some super glue (I think he put some on a cotton ball) and a lit match?

[sam noyoun]

Not sure why he would need to light a match... putting superglue on a cotton ball is a low key way to do it, as this will create a chemical reaction that will release heat and fumes, though it does not work quite as well as a low heat source such as the coffee cup warmer I used. Another thing that can be used as a heat source is a lightbulb.

[Mr. Smart Kid]

sweet

[TheCheese9921]

don't huff the glue lol, neat my sister told me about this when she was taking forensics.

[FreakCitySF]

Ok it was me, I drank the last of the milk. My dad the CSI investigator...