Say, here’s an odd prepping discussion that I don’t recall the in-city wannabes talking much about: What are you going to do for GLUE in the hereafter when TSHTF?
We’ve been out here on the ranch since 2003 and being as how we’re pretty-well stocked up on things, a minor repair on the old farm truck taught us a real serious lesson in how sometimes the modern conveniences we take for granted can come and bite us on the ass.
Take my super glue collection, just as a for-instance. I don’t use super glues often, but sometimes where is a job which nothing else will work well for.
The Farm Truck has plastic rain shields over the driver and passenger door.
They are one of those hundred-dollar options that people toss on their ride at the last minute. Auto dealers make a fortune on these things – which I’m sure must be up to $250 by now.
Here’s the problem: They were dealer installed with double-sided sticky tape. And when we zip down the country roads, these rain shields slap against the top of the door.
You think the engine’s going to take off or the world is ending.
Solution:
Super glue.
Oh, wait. First one I reached for in the glue collection was NFG. (No freaking good!)
Hmmm…”Must have been a bad batch…”
Well, no, not a bad batch at all.
Turns out 7 tubes from four manufacturers around 2005-2008 were all dried up on the inside. Hard as a damn rock. Took the sailing knife and cut them open. Yessir…gobs of plastic, although in fairness, one was slight slightly flexible, but not worth using.
Even the ones with the metal foil on the ends were NFG…
Surprisingly, there was one class of glue that held up in storage (which around here runs from 20F in winter to 110F in summer) for lo these many years:
Yep, that’s it: Good old two-part 5-Minute Epoxy.
You can pick the stuff up at Amazon for a song depending on your singing skills. Versachem 43109 Clear 5-Minute Epoxy – 1 oz. is less than $5 bucks and seems like it would have a decent shelf life.
I decided to get half a dozen of the small packages because they might be more useful that way. I have no idea how well these current production runs will hold up over extremes of temp and time.
But we’re mighty impressed with the performance of the tubes we had from back who-knows-when.
I’m no fan of gluing things, don’t get me wrong. I would rather have genuine fasteners. It’s also why I am not all that thrilled with new-fangled composite aircraft parts. Oh sure, they work on Day One peachy-keen. But are they going to be 30-year throw-aways?
Combat Considerations
No getting away from the fact that super glues are grand for emergency surgery and wound closure.
But at the first sign of war breaking out, run to the store and get the freshest super glues you can. And pick up 50 pounds of sugar.
As one of my friends reminded me a while back: Soldiers in the American Revolution packed wounds with sugar to staunch bleeding and then switched to honey for its medicinal antibacterial properties.
We like having QuikClot and super glues around – and boxes of large shop-grade nitrile gloves, too.
But when worse comes to worse, sugar and honey can work for wound/injury treatments.
A shock to the modern prepper, perhaps, but you can’t stop bleeding with Stevia.
Ham Radio Corner – Great Podcasts!
Female, nearly 80, sailing the world? Got my attention… Buddy Jeff turned me onto http://www.qsotoday.com/
Daily podcast on topics radio’ish.
Reason he called me? This last week’s report was an interview with Susan Meckley, W7KFI. From the summary on the site:
?There is no time like the present to sail the South Pacific, solo, with amateur radio. This is exactly what Susan Meckley, W7KFI, did for almost twenty years until she retired from the open seas at almost eighty years of age. As a ham for almost seventy years, Susan developed a love for 20 meter CW and sailing. She combined them both in her journey that she shares with Eric, 4Z1UG, in this QSO Today….
Go listen to the podcast here and donate to this marvelous podcast series at www.qsotoday.com.
Thomas Witherspoon’s Ears To Our World Project is this week’s report – about bringing ham radio to places without…well….anything. Don’t see globalists doing this kind of people-bridging, do you?
Break: Remember our conversation about “pro sports” is for the couchers? Well this is a fine example of no-excuses kick-ass personal adventuring.
Some people dream of high adventures. Others just get off their butts and go for it. Get comms, get transport, and get out there!
Many hobbies can change the world. Our friend Chad took his Baby Beech out to the Bahamas on church supply missions for local schools in the out islands.
Bottom Line: Politicians don’t change jack. PEOPLE do and everyone has a free membership that club.
Write when you get rich,
you need to check this product out,George. The commercial is funny, but it really could be a useful item.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haPvuhznuyI&feature=youtu.be
THAT was funny…
…and probably useful. Definitely MANLY… like the buffed toenails of a brawny woman.
Thanks for the link
That’s the best laugh I have had in years gave my dog night mares though thanks
This looks like the casting material we use in the ER for fractured bones- but black instead of white.
Consult ‘Naked into the Wilderness’ by John and Geri McPherson.
Fish glue. ’nuff said.
However, something that has been noticed since the Revolutionary War is that honey – for exactly the same reason you mention about its microbial properties is NOT GOOD for little kids. Look at the current warnings on packages of honey – it may taste great but it’s not for toddlers and babies. Unfortunately . . .
He’s not recommending eating it, he’s talking about wound care in a shtf situation. If the choice is to slap some honey on my child’s leg or watch her die from gangrene, I will go with the honey. Honey is not dangerous in and of itself, it is how it is handled, like any other food. There is the smallest chance of botulism from ingesting honey, that is why it has the fda label.
If you aren’t supposed to eat it because of botulism problems, getting the same into your child’s bloodstream will not be good either – it might be better to invest in iodine or some other antibacterial solution that will stay effective even under ‘primitive’ conditions. Medicine didn’t leap from using sugar in wounds to something like Neosporin over night. (Not sure how to do the ‘trademark’ symbol.)
What is being referred to is called “infant botulism” and is a gut-overgrowth thing (and possibly lungs). At least if organisms got into the bloodstream, the immune system would hopefully take care of it.
Anyone know a good glue to affix broken Camry handles? I’ve been told of a special glue that you use a hair dryer with, but no one knows its name or where to get it. (no it’s not Fiber Fix, which requires layering of tape).
If they’re metal, a gob of hard-facing (*welding) rod is good. Burns the interior out, but that’s a different repair issue, lol
I WISH they were metal, then they would have broken. Plastic handles must have been a “thing”- for all I know, they still are.
GREAT commercial, I laughed my butt off. How is the product? Looks pretty impressive! e.
Store your super glue in the freezer, lasts forever. I have some that is al least ten years old and still as good as new each time I use it.
Super glues will not have good shelf life. They are cyanoacrylates, they crosslink from water in the air.
Also, they lack peel strenght.
Then there’s the old veterinarian’s trick for infected wounds: mix granulated white sugar and Betadine into a paste, pack wound and wrap.
Human use, too, see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7302631
I bought some premium superglue years ago at a flea type market, and they took great pains to be sure I understood that it needed to be stored in the freezer. Still works well, and flows easily at freezer temps.
shoe goo, normal and marine. Glues anything from repairing shoe bottoms etc. Ten bucks up here for a big tube. Works wonders.
And flexible! That plus drywall mesh tape will fix all kinds of plastic. Its like that hot sauce “I put that sh_t on everything!”
Great stuff! It works on shoe tops too. It will literally let you glue back the leather of work shoes after the stitching and edge leather has rotted away. I’ve used it to extend the life of everyday work shoes for two years so far, with only one touchup. Without it, they’d be scrap. I’m guessing that it could be used to patch a tire in a pinch.
Hmmm…never had to use it…I don’t work enough, maybe…
It’s great for gluing soles of favorite tennis shoes back on too!
Super glue.. we keep a stock of it as well.. one use toss it away.. we use it for a variety of things.. one important one is the one it was designed for closing wounds.. I am a clutz so often I need to use a bandage and super glue works to close the gap
Echo of agreement: When Pappy taught me home shop practice, we had a saying “No Project of any consequence can be done without at least some bloodshed…”
Hi George,
Both of us can weld things sufficiently well structurally that we can trust our welds not to break under operating conditions, but what about leakage?
Does anyone have any tricks to stick welding airtight, gastight, and fluidtight joints? Just welding pipe nipples or fittings into a tank is easy, but making them leakproof? I’m still working on it. Obviously, this is done all the time by pro welders.
I forgot to add – THIN steel tanks.
thin plastic tanks, lol
a MIG welder and much practice……
The only things I have found for things like this are (in no particular order)
Weld mainly butt joints that have a tiny gap and work your weld up, making sure the metal puddle fills the butt area (tack weld both ends first).
Don’t use a stick welder. Every time you need to change rod, you are asking for a weak spot or burn-through. Use a mig (GMAW) and if you want to burn money tig (GTAW)
Alternative, do everything in plastic and drink more beer!
Except thought processes which is a certain vibration back in the nineteen forties they didn’t know that thoughts were able to activate UFO but they didn’t know that now anything that has the thought processes can initiate the sphere
I disagree with you on that a good welder can make the last Point of Departure stronger even when they reenter
it’s like drawing a picture the more artistic you are then the more you’re open to draw the final detail
Plastic doesn’t hold up at high elevation here outside in the sun. I’m making a replacement hydraulic reservoir for a dump trailer I built. The old one came from a 1950 plow truck, and it’s rusted to extinction. The “new” one is from an old 2 gallon compressor that died. It seems like a simple job until I pressure test it at 10 psi, and then I see bubbling. Once it gets oil in it, it’ll be a real bear to weld. If I get really disgusted, I suppose an epoxy coat of the joints is a fair cheat.
I’m comfortable with stick, but I have a learning curve for MIG. One project at a time since I need the trailer functional.
Regarding beer – perhaps, but I’m leaning more to the distilled spirits for now.
Thank UFO technology where nothing can get in and nothing can get out
Sealed organically and only accessed organically
Except thought processes which is a certain vibration back in the nineteen forties they didn’t know that thoughts were able to activate UFO but they didn’t know that now anything that has the thought processes can initiate the sphere
I met Susan, W7KFI, when she pulled into Pearl Harbor on her solo sailboat many years back and came to our ham club meetings in Honolulu. Amazing woman. She stayed several years in Honolulu. Don’t know if she is still here in the islands. “Granny sails the seven seas” she called herself.
to learn how to crawl with welding take your lawn mower and remove the spark plug wire take your finger and thumb and hold the spark plug wire and take your small finger and press it up against the spark plug electrode now take the other hand and pull the starter cord this is the first lesson in welding is electricity will follow the shortest path it will go from your finger and thumb through your hand and out the little finger to the spark plug there by avoiding going through your heart and shocking you understanding this you will be able to become an artistic welder knowing how to increase the voltage how to use something for greater resistance and where to place welding rod
The reason for this recommended exercises when you pull your finger slightly off of the spark plug you start feeling a charge going through the end of your finger and Little Finger so why keep doing this you develop a minut ability to fluctuate the charge so that when you do use the stick you now have the ability to change it in minut degrees or fractions or in layers since you have now taught your fingers a reflex memory
Yes of the memory has to do with magnetic waves that are created as the voltage increases same thing when you do your fingers same thing when you do the welding rod you can feel the magnetic waves
Hansen’s magnetic waves are vibrations yes you are feeling the vibrations
Work is or means doing the same thing over and over again repetitious
Learning means doing the same thing over and over again but then adding a variable every once in awhile to find out the differences
Shoe glue is good stuff. I never thought about using sheet rock mesh tape with it. have to remember that.
Another super good glue to stockpile is the metal epoxy dough that you kneed together. In Home Depot in the plumbing department they have the same stuff but cheaper than in the glue department. This stuff is excellent for large surfaces, Clean them well with acetone or alcohol. For joining two surfaces it’s not as good it needs some overlap.
I had a tractor that the lug nuts came loose and wallowed out the lug holes. I put some big washers on the lug nuts and coated with the dough metal epoxy and wrenched it down. Worked great.
If you have electricity the melt-able glue gun sticks are good for a lot of stuff.
About glue: Been buying a sneaker made by Reebok for years that had the sole sewed on rather than glued on. They were the best made sneakers on the market and yet one of the least expensive. I think the final regular price on them this year was $59. Wouldn’t you know it, they were out of my size and they quit making them this year. Vans had a similar shoe which they quit making several years ago. In years past, when my tennis shoes got too worn out to wear to a casual night out on the town LOL, I would turn them into yard shoes. The glued ones only last a couple months doing yard work. The sewed ones would give me a good couple of years of yard work use. Guess I will have to break down and buy me a decent pair of work boots to take their place and keep the damned things waxed from here on out. Might be looking for a different kind of shoe for my casual night out on the town as well. I hate rewarding cheapo manufacturing.
Which reminds me. Ford is moving small car production to Mexico. Would you believe my Toyota Sienna and Corolla both were made here in the states. Probably assembled not made. But hey, better than the whole factory being in Mexico. Here I was thinking about my next car purchase being a Ford because they didn’t take a bailout. They lost me. Reebok and Ford … bah humbug!
Cayenne pepper works great to cauterize cuts. The trick is don’t press it into the cut, just sprinkle on until you have a thick coating. Then it won’t burn too bad. I’ve had great success with cuts up to 1″ long and fairly deep. Looks like you had stiches, bleeding stops very quickly and the pepper is an antiseptic. Never gets infected. I certainly wouldn’t use it on children or pets. Only consenting adults.