Toolmaking Art » Husbandry

Food Safe Glue

Bob Strawn — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:55:18 +0000

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

My new Tomato Friends!

Bob Strawn — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:00:06 +0000

Here are the tomato varieties that I will be trying from seed gathered at the Tomato Festival!

#1 Tipsy and #2 Green Giant x Yellow Submarine F1

#3 Dice’s Mystery Black

#4 Jaune Flamme a wonderful French heirloom tomato

#5 Sungold

#6 Purple Haze F1

#7 OSU Blue

#8 Paul Robeson

#9 Tennessee Green

#10 Morovsky Div

#11 Golden Gem

#12 Redfield Beauty

#13 Tony’s Italian on the left and #14 Momotoro on the right

#15 Black Cherry

Bob

Texas Cedar

Bob Strawn — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:00:30 +0000

When I started out exploring and sharing experiences on woodworking using the web, I took the handle ‘Cedar Slayer.’ Between allergies and my enjoying the smell of the wood, I was cutting and using a reasonable quantity of the stuff. I grew to love this wood, and was surprised at the variability of it. As I researched and read up on the stuff, I found out how to cure cedar fever, and how valuable a tree cedar is. Mind you, I don’t want it everywhere, but am actually encouraging the plant to grow in a few places in my yard now. I found out that a lot of cedar we use is not even cedar. If it holds up in weather ok and smells cedary, we call it cedar. The ‘cedar’ used in cigar boxes is actually a hard wood. The cedar in my yard is juniper.

Lovely stuff juniper. in the middle of summer it grows pretty powder blue berries. In late fall, in my yard, the berries ripen. Most fall before you can pick them, but the ripe ones are actually quite sweet and tasty. if they are not ripe the taste pretty much like pine smells. The story is that if you eat five or so berries, you will be immune to cedar fever allergies. My family tried it this last year, and for us, it worked.

Here is a site with a lot of good information on cedar.

My current plan is to put a windbreak of cedar at the north end of my yard. The more I work with and learn about cedar, the more I love it. The trees can be real itchy though, and I am not fond of itchy.

Bob

South East Texas Tomato Festival

Bob Strawn — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:00:38 +0000

This weekend, I traveled to Washington on the Brazos to see the South East Texas Tomato Festival!

The bridge was out, so we had to take a detour, but it was all worth it. The folk there are testing, and comparing heirloom and a bit more recent varieties of tomatoes.

They had a huge range of tomatoes for the tasting. Seriously they had tables covered with a wide range of samples that they were quite generous with. I came away with a bit more than I can manage, but I will have to try. I have never seen so many different tomatoes side by side.

I am rather used to reinventing the wheel whenever I start researching. These wonderful folk have done major research and have produced wonderful data and evidence side by side, that I could see, touch and taste!

I managed to give a few Magenta Spreen plants away, and a few I’itois Onions as well, so I don’t feel too guilty. But indeed I am in these folks debt! The enjoyment, information and seeds that I came home with are treasures indeed!

Here are the tomatoes they gave me to take home and get seeds from!

Most of these are small to medium. I prefer smaller because they mature faster and I am more likely to get some before the bugs and birds consume them. The big one in the middle however was too much to pass up. It is a near perfect balance of tomato qualities and it is named in honor of the great Paul Robeson! I had to have it!

There are 15 varieties here for me to try out. Two of them are mysteries, since I managed to fail on documenting them.

Mystery Tomato number 6, Purple somethingorother.

Mystery Tomato number 12, labeled Red Odd. I guess that is it’s name now.

After extracting seeds, these tomatoes made a wonderful fresh tomato sauce!

I saved the seeds in their juice.

Then I covered the juice and seeds with plastic wrap.

Within three or so days mold will have covered the juice, and the goop will be really slimy and very acidic. This will kill most tomato diseases. Then I will wash the seeds in a strainer and spread them on cloth to dry. After they no longer stick to things, I will put them in packets for next year and plant a few of each for this year.

And yes, I made the rack for the shot glasses. A chunk of cedar with holes drilled in it. I added feet to it so the shot glasses don’t touch the table below. Simple enough, but it will keep the seed ordered and manageable.

Bob

Cut and come again Lettuce, use it or lose it!

Bob Strawn — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:00:09 +0000

Right now my lettuce is at a turning point.

This one is beginning to produce seed. The one below is ready to eat.

If I remove all the mature leaves, it will grow more, and the pruning will prevent it from going to seed at least until it gets a little bit warmer.

Harvesting the whole plant makes no sense when you can get this sort of lettuce of a single plant once a week for months.

Eventually it will all go to seed. I will miss the salads, but it is nice having the seed to plant this year after year.

These lovely plants have been giving us lettuce for five months now. Soon however it will get to warm, and they will bolt despite my best efforts to keep them producing.

Bob