Help with a crack

[mr_houston]

I have a Simpsons Colonel that I wanted to re-knot. I love the handle shape.

I tried to steam the knot. It wouldn’t budge after 30 min or 45 min. At the 1 hour mark, I used too much pressure pulling sideways and it cracked. I glued it together with some glue I use on acrylic scales. But this appears to be the wrong glue.

I am fixing this for my use only and don’t care too much how it looks. But, I don’t want it to crack any further. I am considering drilling a hole at the end of the crack, like they do for windshield cracks.

So, how do I fix this?

Picture with new knot glued with silicone only.

 

[GAW9576]

That's a beautiful brush. I wish I had some helpful advice. Hopefully one of the vintage brush restoring gurus chimes in.

 

[Big Jim]

I had success with a cracked Erskine. I started by cleaning the cracks with bleach and a toothbrush. Once the darkness is removed and the cracks dried, I sealed it with CA. Followed with light sanding the cracks became nearly invisible. I don't know how well this would work for you. My cracks were not nearly as deep.

 

[Graydog]

Did you get the knot out?

 

[Atlantic59]

JB Weld PlasticWeld should be suitable for that repair. It dries to a translucent off-white color. Please DON'T use superglue for acrylic resin.

J-B Weld PlasticWeld Syringe 50132 - The Home Depot

PlasticWeld Syringe is a specially formulated, 2-part adhesive and epoxy filler system that provides strong, lasting repairs. PlasticWeld will bond a variety of surfaces such as metal, composite, fiberglass

www.homedepot.com

 

[ajkel64]

I have nothing. I do like the idea of the Plastic Weld stuff. It sounds like pretty good stuff.

 

[Omarz]

You could dermal the crack wider and clout match epoxy and epoxy and sand polish exct

 

[CoventryCowboy]

The idea of drilling a small hole at the end of the crack I think is a good idea. It helps stopping the crack from getting bigger. Then the JB weld plasticweld sounds good.

 

[mr_houston]

The idea of drilling a small hole at the end of the crack I think is a good idea. It helps stopping the crack from getting bigger. Then the JB weld plasticweld sounds good.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think this is going to be my approach.

But has anybody ever done this? Could use some real world experience.

 

[Atlantic59]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think this is going to be my approach.

But has anybody ever done this? Could use some real world experience.

IMHO, you don't need to drill any hole. That is a technique for some materials that are prone to stress cracking. The epoxy is strong enough to prevent the crack from spreading.

To get a good bond, the edges of the crack should be clean. You can use a small brush and soapy water for this. The epoxy should be used to fill the crack. It would be good to clamp the handle to get the edges of the crack to come together again. For this, you could use a hose clamp or bar clamp.


Alternatively, use household items to make a band clamp. Use a strip of cloth, and tighten it around the handle using a rod or stick, like a tournquet. Whatever you can find to hold the edges of the crack together until the epoxy has cured should work.

 

[Atlantic59]

One other thing is clean-up. If you need to remote excess epoxy from a surface, you can use isopropyl alcohol and a clean cloth to wipe it off before it cures.

With luck, you will have a repair that will blend in so it won't be very noticeable.

 

[Ice-Man]

If the handle is any of these Styrene, Butyrate, ABS, Perspex, and Acrylic (Lucite or Plexiglas). I would use EMA plastic weld this stuff is brilliant it works wonders, you make sure the crack is drawn together then run the EMA along the crack and its drawn in by capillary action will draw solvent into joint. bar clamp is the best to use as posted above in post 10

I get mine from Here is the Link

 

[mr_houston]

@Ice-Man, I think that is similar to what I tried - Weld-On. It did not hold.

I wrote to Simpsons about glues and the handle material and got this back:

Oh no what rotten luck!

Other than super glue not really. The handle is lathe turned Polyester Rod.

Good luck I hope it works for you.

Best regards

Anna

 

[mr_houston]

Ok, here is where I am.

I drilled a hole at the end of the crack so it wouldn’t spread, esp while I am working on it. Used a 1/16th bit I use for straight razors.

Next, I cut the crack with a diamond dremel wheel. Mostly to the get the previous glue out.

I bought the JB Plasticweld that @Atlantic59 recommended.

Thinking about technique now. I figure I am filling now instead of joining. It will be hard to get glue in the hole. Will also need tape to hold the glue in the crack.

 

[Ice-Man]

Hmm just thinking how are you going to color the JB Plasticweld, as that is now a wide gap so you're going to see it. The stuff I posted would have done the job as it melts the two sides together, so it goes invisible I did look at the product you used and is it a cement if so that's why it did not work.

Super Glue does not work on some plastics as it comes in a plastic bottle, you could try Bondic UV Light Liquid Plastic Adhesive Welder Kit that might work.

 

[Ice-Man]

You might be better off getting some white color powder for resin, and mix it with some epoxy and cover the crack from the outside with clingfilm. Then fill it with the epoxy or tape it from the backside and still fill it from the front, but apart from that I don't know how your going to work it without seeing it.

 

[Atlantic59]

I was hoping you would be able to join the halves of the crack for a repair that would not be very noticeable. Now, with that hole drilled and the crack enlarged, this becomes more of a fill and patch type job. The PlasticWeld already has some color filler in it to make it off-white, but I am not sure how close the color will match.

 

[mr_houston]

Well, that was a fail. The Jb Plasticweld is clear, so the brush looks bad. Nonetheless, it should hold together fine for my personal use. I still need to sand down the glue when it fully cures.

On a brighter note, I bought a used Shavemac Synthetic for the handle. I’ve always admired these blue handles. I got the knot ground out and had to go a little deeper for my knot of choice. No more steam for me.

 

[godek]

Perhaps you can use the crack to make it more beautiful. I quite like the japanese Kintsugi style of dealing with broken things: Kintsugi - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

HTH
godek

 

[Big Jim]

Beautiful blue handle. Please post a picture of the brush after setting the knot.