Loctite 603 surprise

[PH]

Having used Loctite 603 on a number of occasions and had good results, I used some to stick (sorry, adhesively bond) some ball bearings into some axle boxes yesterday. Since the bearings had to be flush with one side of the axle boxes, I put some Loctite into the bores in the axle boxes, dropped the bearings in and put them face down on a (somewhat rusty) bit of plate.
My understanding is (was?) that Loctite 603 acts as a gap filler in the absence of air and remains uncured when it’s not in the critical gap. That has been my previous experience – just wipe off the uncured Loctite the next day. This morning I discovered that the axle boxes were stuck hard to the plate and required a tap with a hammer to move them, and there are some deposits of cured Loctite and unsightly stains on the face that was in contact with the plate.
I’ve never had this before nor heard of it. Has Loctite changed, or did I do something unadvisable?

[Roger]

I'd go for the latter, that's not something I'd do. Loctite will most certainly go off in almost any gap, even if it's quite large, given enough time. There's no critical gap for Loctite, all it does is affect the speed that it goes off. If you don't put the cap back on the bottle correctly, you can get a big ring of the stuff going solid, I've had that happen.

[Deleted]

Next time, use a shiny plate and put a layer of Sellotape on top. The Loctite won't stick to Sellotape. You might just find a ring of cured Loctite on the end of the bearing, which can be easily scraped off.

Ron

[4fbuilder]

Hi,

Nip into the kitchen and get the cling film, put that over the surface first, then everything cleans up nicely, also before it starts to go off you can generally wick off any surplus using kitchen towel.

Bob