I have been looking for a waterproof, food safe glue for quite a while.    A lot of people advertise that their products are made with food safe glue, and a lot of people say that this or that glue is food safe, but when [...]]]> My next glue purchase is going to be a gallon of Ecopoxy.

I have been looking for a waterproof, food safe glue for quite a while.    A lot of people advertise that their products are made with food safe glue, and a lot of people say that this or that glue is food safe, but when you research the final results, they don’t pan out.    Some will talk about the safety of the product, but their web sites and literature don’t make the same claims.     Just because a salesman has made  a claim, and people believed  it and repeated  it, does not make it true.   The only conclusive evidence of  food safe glue, that I have found up until now is Tightbond III.  It is rated for indirect contact with food.  As a result a lot of people prefer it for making cutting boards.

Ecopoxy is currently not being marketed as a glue, but I think this will be just the thing.   I have not tested it as a glue, but from the specs, it looks like it will be ideal.  No glue is perfect, but this looks like a dream glue.

It has an unlimited shelf life.  (heat may damage the resin)   This by itself is amazing.  An unlimited shelf  life means you don’t have to replace it every year.  You don’t have to worry that the glue you bought may already be three months old and only half as strong as it was.  This is a big advantage.   This puts it in the category with hide glue for longevity.

Probably using Knox Gelatin as hide glue is the safest glue you can get, but apart from peanut allergies possibly causing a problem while the glue is curing, or the BPA issue rearing it’s ugly head, this is as safe as any glue I have seen.  It is rated for holding potable water, so food contact is not an issue.   From the specifications I have read, I would trust this more than the plastic bottles or metal cans we drink from regularly.   The metal cans are usually lined with this sort of epoxy anyway, and this looks to be the best of them.

The other advantages are reduced odor, VOC and environmental  issues.   Gluing up a boat in your garage would be quite a bit safer with this epoxy.  This is made from soybeans, beans and peanuts, so the carbon footprint is much lower than most glues.    The one downside is the curing time.  It is typical for a glue to be fully set either overnight or a full day later.  This will reach full strength in three to five days so for a rush job or impatient craftsman, this will not be ideal.    A lot of the toxicity of finishes and glues comes from the materials used to speed the setting time, so I am not about to complain about the speed.  I would much rather have safe materials.

Here are a few thoughts on usage.  Cutting blocks come to mind immediately, but this product may allow for some really neat things to be made.  Imagine  taking 6 board feet of oak, and making a stackable one foot oak cube that holds  five and a half gallons for brewing wine in.    Or imagine gluing together three sections like the picture below and making a wooden flask.  It would look really nice with a square cork.  There is no reason at all that this flask is not triangular or round or whatever.

One neat application they list is using it with sand to make a non slip surface.   A food safe, marine grade epoxy that is tough enough to use to as a floor coating sounds pretty wonderful to me.  I want to make a cedar hot tub with it to put next to a small cedar swimming pool.  Put that on a cedar deck, with a non-slip walking path and you have a pretty wonderful back yard.   If you masked off a pathway, you could make a neat non slip path.   This path could be intact or done as if stepping stones.    I am sure you could do this with a lot of other epoxies, but I would feel much better soaking in a hot tub that was food safe!

I cannot give any advice based on personal use yet, but as soon as I can I will do an update on this.  I have enough of a sample to do some quick testing, so I will be reporting on this as I go.     In any case, this epoxy looks like a game changer.

Bob

To start out making the simplest projects out of wood, you need to be able to cut wood and stick it together.   A saw, hammer or screwdriver, [...]]]> Hand tool users online, often talk about the slope.   It is a reference to the constant pressing need for new tools.  It is really a fairly honest thing.

To start out making the simplest projects out of wood, you need to be able to cut wood and stick it together.   A saw, hammer or screwdriver, and some glue will get you started.   If you want to have smooth, splinter free wood most folk go for sandpaper.  They should get a hand  scraper and burnisher the same day they buy the sandpaper, but that requires a bit more knowledge.

As you add embellishments to your work, often a new tool will allow you to do the work better, in other words faster and prettier.

There is a point you reach, where the tools you need are fairly obscure or might not even exist commercially.  This is not that historically rare.  Custom tools at one time were the rule and not the exception.

Right now, for a few projects I am working on, I need a left handed skew plane.  Normally this would not be a big issue since most people do their work in square.  Since I am trying to do some fine work at 60 degree and 30 degree angles, there are times when I actually need, not just want, a left handed skew plane.   Every other angled rabbet needs this tool.  Without it you are forced to plane into the grain.   This is the simple result of expanding your range of work.

I also want to make several sliding dovetails, and some nice grooves in wood for drawers to slide in.  Since I am doing it at odd angles, the standard range of planes will not quite do.  So I am designing a plow plane just for this task.  The prototype has me optomistic.

As far as the tight set of tools that a woodworker might want in his travel tool box, these two might even make the cut.  That makes them pretty important, by my standards.

Bob

So now I grow tobacco for my pipe.

Here is [...]]]> A lot of gardeners use tobacco as an organic pesticide.  I decided at one time to grow some, so that I would not chance introducing tobacco mosaic virus to my tomatoes and peppers.  Since then have found the only pesticide I like to use is homemade soap.

So now I grow tobacco for my pipe.

Here is my reason for smoking one pipe a day.

American Chemical Society. “Tobacco Chemical Protects Against Parkinson’s Disease.” ScienceDaily 29 March 2000. 1 July 2008 sciencedaily.com  Article Here

Besides it is a very pretty plant!

Bob

Here are a few links: Woodnet discussion on Ballistol.

The Story (or legend) of [...]]]> I have been reading up on rust prevention and one name that comes up over and over is Ballistol. Apart from keeping Prussian guns clean and rust free, there are those who use it on leather, wood, goats, people, old records, and planes.

Here are a few links:
Woodnet discussion on Ballistol.

The Story (or legend) of Ballistol

Side by side rust experiment

Leather Treatment

The claims are well into the philosophers stone category, and apparently anyone who uses it becomes a fanatic ballistol zombie. I have j a rather large container, so if I become a fanatic ballistol zombie, you know that my theory is true.

have read a few gun forum posts where they like Renaissance Wax for the outsides of guns and Ballistol for the insides and moving parts.

Has anyone developed a preference or opinion on Microcrystalline Waxes? Lee Valley sells this for a bit less.

Microcrystalline wax is a fairly broad range of materials so I started looking for what conservators like to specify. As a result I found This Cosmolloid 80 H. So far, gram for gram, this is the least expensive, but then you don’t get the pretty can. I am not underrating the can here, it looks good on your shelf and will probably last there for a very long time.

I have managed to use up my tiny tin of Renaissance Wax through excessive use and having the tin at an angle in my greenhouse/shop on a hot day. Apparently I am a poor conservator of conservator materials.

Unless someone else has experience or knowledge with these materials, I may have to break down and get some of each just to do a side by side test of rust preventative materials.

My thought is that spending a bit up front learning what works best will in the long term save money and time on clean up of rust, and protecting tools.

I have a bit of a preference for other waxes for protecting tools than Renaissance Wax on tools that I regularly use, but that may be because it gets quite hot in Texas, and the tools I use regularly are not kept at anything like a controlled temperature. The low melting point on microcrystalline wax may make it a less ideal treatment in warmer areas. It does do a great job on tools stored in a more controlled environment, but then I have less problems with rust on tools kept inside. I have not done a side by side test, this is just from personal experience.

When it gets hot and humid, rust forms easily. I suspect that I will end up treating my tools with Oxpho-Blue followed by ballistol, unless some form of microcrystalline wax does better. I have a Camphor Block in several of my tool boxes, but I have no idea how well it works, but I do like the smell. The link mentions an aromatic taste, but a 1 oz dose has killed children before, so I don’t advise eating the stuff or using it where young critters might get their paws on it.

I have been using ballistol for a little while now, and here is my data.

The smell is a bit off from licorice. It smells kind of like the liquor Anisette or maybe Galliano. It does not even vaguely remind me of old socks. That being said, it is not a bad smell, more of a discordant smell. It does not seem to belong, and you do notice it.

Because they say, it holds up forever, and because I got a gallon bottle of it, I poured some into a cheap 8 oz bottle .

This has been out in the weather, but not in direct sun. When I used it last, the smell was mostly gone, only a mild fragrance note really. So you can ignore the scent warning if that is an issue, with a bit of time and preparation. The type of bottle I used has a tendency to get scrunchy in the weather. When it is hot, the air expands and the cap lets the air out. When it cools the air contracts so the bottle smushes in. This will allow the release of most volitiles over time, but prevent a lot of oxidation.

So far, I have not seen any rust form under it, and it seems to work well. It is not hard to apply and it penetrates and cleans quite well. I am tempted to try it for sharpening.
Oddly the thicker oil of Camellia penetrates and lubricates better, I think, but does not prevent rust quite as well. Camellia is the best lubricant I have found for door hinges that squeak.

As far as I can tell, I have not turned into a ballistol zombie, but it may take time. I do rather like the stuff, however.

Bob