For repairing large, hydrocal castings such as a stone wall, what is the best glue? I have read white glue but that doesn't seem intuitive to me. Seems like it wouldn't bond or be strong enough? I have a wall that has a very clean break and fits back together so cleanly the break line is imperceptible. So, once I glue it and then stain/finish the front, it will be like new. I just don't want to "experiment" w/ this thing. Is sorta unreal. As many hydrocal castings as I have dealt w/ over the years and this is the first one I have broken. I even thought about Gorilla glue, but that seems like if any at all leaches to the front, then I will see a line when I finish the casting. My intuition says I don't want any dry glue near the finished stone surface at all. Thanks.
I've used Elmer's White Glue with good results. Just make very sure that you don't get any on visible surfaces, it doesn't take stains or paints well. Dave.
I think you can glue plaster building models together with ACC; should work on the castings. I definitely agree that it should not be visible as it will not take paint or stain the same as the plaster.
Methyl-ethyl-ketone (MEK). It's the same stuff you use to build styrene models, and to seal the PVC tubing joints you find in built-in vacuum systems. I fixed a ceramic Christmas Tree base that we smashed in two soon after my wife had finished it. I had nothing else, but had some of the MEK left over from a recent built-in vacuum job, and thought I had nothing to lose. Twenty years later, it is as good as new. Failing that, a two part epoxy that you mix.
Elmers with do the job. Do NOT use Gorilla glue since it expands when curing and you will have a very nice fault line on the splice.
ACC = Alpha Cyanoacrylate Cement, origin unknown to me. CA = Cyanoacrylate. I never knew there was Ethyl Cyanoacrylate for cementing plastics, etc and Methyl Cyanoacrylate for cementing metal to metal. Nice to know. Maybe using ethyl CA is why my GHQ white metal items don't hold very well. Ben
