SyntheticBlinkerFluid
SyntheticBlinkerFluid UberDork
6/23/13 9:45 a.m.

Long Story Short: A yard statue that has been in my wife's family for years came to live with us. A storm with some really strong winds came through the other day and created a domino effect of things falling over and the statue got into a fight with the concrete birdbath and he lost his head in the scuffle.

The break is clean, so is there some sort of glue or epoxy I could use to glue his head back on? My wife is freaking out, so any help would be great.

Knurled
Knurled GRM+ Memberand UberDork
6/23/13 9:55 a.m.

Right Stuff?

cwh
cwh PowerDork
6/23/13 9:57 a.m.

JB Weld will certainly hold it together, but any overflow will need to be cleaned up quickly. What color is the statue?

Cole_Trickle
Cole_Trickle HalfDork
6/23/13 10:00 a.m.

I cant remember the name, but there is some stuff that landscapers use for retaining walls. You can find it at Lowes/Home Depot and it works wonders.

EvanB
EvanB GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
6/23/13 10:13 a.m.

http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/epxy_metal_s/overview/Loctite-Epoxy-Metal-Concrete.htm

alex
alex UberDork
6/23/13 10:49 a.m.

Your local big box hardware store will have an epoxy that's used to anchor rebar into holes drilled in concrete. Should be plenty strong, as it's considered structurally sound. It will be in a caulk tube in the concrete aisle, and you'll be getting more than you need, probably, but it's good stuff. It will also give you 15 minutes of working time once it's mixed, which should be sufficient to set the piece and get it cleaned up.

motomoron
motomoron Dork
6/23/13 6:17 p.m.

I used ordinary Devcon 5-minute epoxy to reattach the head of the concrete St. Francis we discovered in the jungle behind our old house.

It must have been 5 or 7 years ago, and he remains in possession of his head, and we've not been especially kind to him.

curtis73
curtis73 GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
6/24/13 12:41 a.m.

Go straight to the good stuff.... Hilti makes a 2-part epoxy with a self-mixing nozzle that is the bees knees. My landlord and I were setting parking curbs at a rental property. We drilled for rebar and then set the curbs in some of that epoxy. We ran out of rebar with about 15 curbs left and just set the last 15 in just epoxy. To the best of my knowledge they are still in place today (10 years)

curtis73
curtis73 GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
6/24/13 12:52 a.m.

This stuff. http://www.us.hilti.com/holus/page/module/product/prca_rangedetail.jsf?lang=en&nodeId=-58689

It isn't cheap, but in my experience the cement will disintegrate long before the epoxy does. This is what the spec in CA for anchoring rebar in old, cracked concrete and it still meets the seismic requirements for the strictest building codes like Santa Monica, Malibu, Hills, Sun Valley, and Van Nuys.

In fact, we built a 3-car garage on top of an existing slab. We drilled the footer down 24", set all-thread down in this epoxy at each corner, and the inspector said that it will pull the 32" footer out of the ground before it breaks that epoxy. Ironically, that same inspector failed the sheathing inspection because I was missing one or two nails in the plywood.

Moral of the story is; 8 pieces of all-thread stuffed into this glue was more than enough for seismic code, but if you miss one nail the whole thing might randomly collapse

Kenny_McCormic
Kenny_McCormic Dork
6/24/13 2:19 a.m.

Any polyurethane construction adhesive should work.

fasted58
fasted58 PowerDork
6/24/13 7:03 a.m.

and the obligatory warning:

don't get it on yur hootus

SyntheticBlinkerFluid
SyntheticBlinkerFluid UberDork
6/24/13 8:35 a.m.

Haha, thanks for the help guys. Just for the record it is a statue of St. Francis. We usually have it out with our bird feeders, but I took them all down for the move, so I moved St. Francis as well, so now I'm regretting where I put him.

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