Puncture repair – vulcanising solution vs rubber cement

I’ve got a lifetimes supply of patches but no ‘glue’ left and didn’t want to buy yet another kit just to get a small tube of ‘glue’).   Today I tried using a tube of ‘vulcanising solution’ that I guess I’d bought from Ebay some time back and it didn’t seem to do anything.

have I got the wrong stuff?  what is it that I should have bought?

I buy patches and ‘glue’ separately like you. I feel that you have the right stuff but if you have had it a while the important part of vulcanising solution can evaporate. 

Did you leave it to partially set ?  I buy glue separatey now, in the tubes – just bogo Weldtight stuff.

It was a sealed metal tube so shouldn’t have evaporated.  But it didn’t seem to ‘stick’ to the rubber of the tube in the way normal stuff does – just sort of wiped off again.  I dug around and got just enough out of a tiny kit tube to put a patch on.

Same as others above, I used to just buy glue separately. I bought the really small tubes as it was that seldom I used them I used to treat them as 1-use only. I got sick of the glue having been gone off by the next time I used it on bigger tubes. Have been tubeless for a while now but still carry some in case anyone else needs some

b33k34
“It was a sealed metal tube so shouldn’t have evaporated.”

Maybe my plan is not as foolproof as I thought, I’ll have to test a tube.

I had sealed tube that was completely empty.

Vulcanising solution basically melts rubber things so they become one. I’ve used it for tube patches and for mushroom plugs to repair tubeless tyres.

Rubber cement is more like a glue. I’ve got some Rema SC-BL to use with their tyre UP patches but never used them. I think it was the recommended stuff to go with them.

The Rema tiptop solution is available separately to the kits.

I don’t think either is a specific technical definition so they are probably used interchangeably.

Solvent cements typically melt the surface and then evaporate leaving them bonded. They contain other ingredients to improve adhesion once the solvent has gone. Maybe you just got a brand that was a bit rubbish. To make these things cheaper you’d end up taking out the “good” stuff.