Post #774208 by mike and marie on Sun, Mar 19, 2017 7:23 PM

Ok, 'bout time for an update...

As you see from the date of the initial thread, this thing was sitting untouched in my workshop far too long.

The big lucite chunks are cool, and so is the small glittery stuff, and yes they could be used for any number of projects, including new types of lights ... however, I had all the broken pieces of this thing, I love the shape and style of the original lamp, and ... I just can't give up!

So last November I had the idea: finally get around to this, and fix it right, and give the lamp to Marie as a Christmas present.

That meant I couldn't ask her for help but had to get this pieced together on the sly. I wasn't sure if I could, but I tried. First I got the E6000 glue that Tikiskip recommended.

First thing I noticed was the tube was awfully small -- not much bigger than your average superglue. And looking over at this lamp, at least a third of it had fallen off. I was thinking, "Ok, this is not going to work."

The other problem is, reading the labels I see that it's apparently one of those glues that give you like Stage 15 brain cancer if you accidentally inhale it for five seconds too long, and it's as flammable as space shuttle fuel so you have to keep it away from all pilot lights. It's November, I'm in the workshop not far from the furnace pilot, I'm thinking "Uh uh."

So one day I take it all out into the garage and get moving. And basically it ends up a total mess: the glue doesn't stick, it stinks, I run out right away and the big chunks I test it on all fall right out with no tackiness at all.

I'm ready to give up.

I'm looking at this beautiful vintage lamp, and thinking "If only I had some tackiness here..."

And then it hits me -- go with the tacky glue that I've used so much in the past. It held together a lot of the wood beams and rope in the Treasure Island Room's Wreck Bar, so maybe it would work here.

I ran down and got some, tried it, and no -- it was just as bad as the E6000 stuff.

So now I had a mess to clean, and those little flecks kept falling off and I had to keep them all carefully in a big brown paper bag, and I had to wait a day for the big pieces to dry before I could do anything.

Looked back down in the workshop for another solution. There was Mod Podge, so useful for many tiki projects (and every home bar builder and tiki crafter should have a tub of it), but I tried it and although a bit tacky it wasn't strong enough. I'd get one to hold and then put another piece on and the first one fell off. This went on for about ten minutes before I gave that up.

And then in desperation I turned to other glues I had. In particular, there was the tub of Titebond, wood glue that I use for furniture repairs and that's useful for working with rattan and bamboo. I didn't think it would work. But you know what -- after I let it sit for five minutes it tacked up perfectly, I was able to arrange a bunch of the big chunks, and then spray all the little shimmery pieces in the gluey sections in between. "This is it, it's all over," I thought, not even caring ... everyone was right, I figured that this was a lost cause ... then I came down the next morning and I couldn't believe it, the stuff had dried to the same exact color as the original lamp, and all the stuff held! When dry, this is just like the original epoxy or whatever it was they used to put it together. It's just a little translucent, like the chunk pieces themselves, so the light goes through it and glows ... so to finish this up, basically I had to do this for about 7 days, making 1-2 applications a day, gluing pieces on and putting the small flakey pieces in, and the cool thing is when this dripped, the dry pieces of it were nearly indistinguishable from some of the lucite pieces, so I could use them as well...

Once I got all the outside stuff together I smeared a decent layer on the inside, and then put another layer on the outside, cutting off any drips from the big chunks with a razor blade. Then the next day I took it outside and gave it a coat of polyurethane. One more the day after. Then I took all my brand new lamp parts and a new LED light and put the baby together ... Boxed it all up just in time for Christmas...

[ Edited by: mike and marie 2017-03-19 21:38 ]

[ Edited by: mike and marie 2017-03-19 21:40 ]