Fact 1: There are about a million different kinds of craft glue. Fact 2: Even if your adhesives bin is filled to the brim, chances are good that the only glue you won’t have on hand will be the specific kind you need to actually finish the project you’re working on. So, what’s a crafty […]
Ever wonder which craft adhesive will work best for the project you have in mind? Never fear! Katie at Lemon Jitters will walk you through the basics of 8 common adhesives so you’ll know what to reach for next time you’re in a sticky situation. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.) [Via Grosgrain] More: Ask CRAFT: […]
Meet Sugru, an air-curing rubber that’s designed for gadget hacking. Its uses are almost unlimited. We’ve used it to reinforce computer cords, protect our phones, make gaming controllers more comfortable, and even fix a pair of boots.
In today’s Toolbox, Sean Ragan takes a look at the Rockler Silicone Glue Brush.
Erik de Laurens recently graduated from the Royal College of Art. As part of his graduate exhibition, Erik presented his project The Fish Feast. He was experimenting with uses for fish scales (of which the commercial fishing industry discards tons annually) and discovered he could create a useful plasticby forming the cleaned scales under heat and pressure.
Awhile back, I wrote about co-opting the awesome glue used to mount rear-view mirrors for hobby projects. An interested reader e-mailed me a couple weeks later asking if I knew how to remove a rear-view mirror button from a windshield, which I didn’t. Several people have reported that trying to forcibly remove the metal button from the glass can actually break a divot of glass out of the windshield. I was therefore not optimistic, but we talked a little about the idea of using an organic solvent combined with sharp lateral pressure parallel to the glass. She experimented a bit, and, what do you know, eventually succeeded! Here’s her report:
They sent me a couple of samples, shown above, which I just now received and applied to my wall, and I am pleased to be able to report that the technology is apparently everything they claim. Plus the prints look great. They sent me the four-foot size, which they recommend applying with a friend, because you have to peel it off of a wax-paper backing and get it aligned and smooth on the wall and that’s a lot easier, with a large size, if you’ve got four hands. But I was able to do it by myself with only a minimum of swearing by just peeling off the top edge of the decal, aligning it and smoothing it down on the wall, and then reaching behind the hanging print to peel off the backing from the top down, smoothing the decal to the wall as I went. I just put them up a week ago, so I can’t report anything about how long the adhesive really lasts, or if it will really stay on the wall for months or years until I move. Or whether, when I do finally remove it, if it will really leave the wall undamaged. But this far into the product life-cycle, anyway, I am beyond impressed. The prints cling tight to the wall and, unless you look really close, appear to be painted on–like you’ve got custom murals painted right on your walls.
