Sunday 13 January 2008

Loose leg joints

Wiggly, but won't come out

So what do you do? Get advice from Tony Jackson is what. He recommends using an offset syringe to inject glue between the surfaces of the joint, drilling a careful hole first.

He doesn't use a needle, but before he told me this I'd bought one from my local chemist. It's not possible to fill the syringe with wood glue through the needle; but if you fill it, then add the needle, the glue will come out all right. This is good, as you can get glue deep into small cracks.

It's a delicate job. I'm sure experience helps, but alas I have none.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, that was Sunday. I notice that it's Thursday, today, and that it's all gone worryingly quiet. What progress with the glue injections?!

Lexi said...

Well...the problem I have is, how do you know? Unless you have x-ray eyes like whichever super hero it was.

Zaphod's leg joints are now not wiggling at all, which is great; but supposing it's just a bit of glue holding them together, and as soon as I've gessoed and painted it'll flex again?

So I may try to get some more glue in this weekend.

Anonymous said...

So did you glue some more? And how do you ever know how securely something is held together, until it no longer holds? What kind of paint job are you going to give him? And are you going to add him to your family or does he have a barn picked out already?

This has been fun to watch.
Mary

Lexi said...

I didn't glue any more, but did some filling and sanding. If I'd bought him with non-wiggly legs, I'd have asumed they were well enough glued; so maybe I'm fussing over nothing.

They seem sound.

Before I paint him he has to be gessoed, several coats with sanding in between. This is dusty, and best done on the balcony, so I will wait till it stops raining. If, indeed, it ever does.

I'm likely to keep Zaphod; finished, I think he'd pass as 100% J & G Lines, but of course he isn't. So he won't be very valuable, except to the unscrupulous.

Anonymous said...

looking forward to seeing the finished Zaphod. just wondered what your others horses are, the large one looks like an ayres?

Jane

Lexi said...

Hi Jane,

In the sidebar picture, the horse on the green stand is a George Woodrow (he worked for Lines, then on his own) the one at the front is G & J Lines, the smaller push horse is probably Lines.

In the picture of me reading to the horses (!) the huge horse is a 1993 Stevenson Bros.

I can't wait to get on with Zaphod, but I've got rushes with silversmithing and my books right now.

Thanks for dropping by!