Just one question for anyone who has used any of these recommended flexible glues: do any of them stink of acetic acid (vinegar) while curing?
The first such product I ever became aware of turned up in pet stores in the 1960s for lunatic far-inlanders like me who craved a salt water aquarium. Standard aquarium tanks then had glass panels held together in a metal frame which the pet store guy would swear all day and all night was stainless steel. And for fresh water it was. Didn’t corrode, stayed nice and shiny. But salt water? Different store entirely.
Many fixes were tried, of which the best (of a bad lot) was marine spar varnish, which you were supposed to paint on everything that wasn’t glass. Biggest problem with spar varnish was it didn’t last so very long–usually needed to be re-done every three months. Put your fishies in a plastic bucket, empty the salt water out, soak the tank out with tap water for a couple of days, rinse it out with distilled water if you’re obsessive-compulsive (I am), let it dry thoroughly, maybe helping it along a bit with a blow dryer, then re-do the spar varnish step. This was actually sort of do-able (if you had a 10 or 20 gallon tank.) Oh, it’s a 500? Not so much.
First solution that actually worked long term was stuff in a tube, brand name “Silastic,” that claimed to be some form of silicone rubber. Same instructions as varnish–smear substance on everything that wasn’t glass and let it cure. Your whole house (if not whole neighborhood) stank of acetic acid for several days. But, holy hell, when the job was done it was DONE. You now have an aquarium that’s no more reactive than one of the noble gasses, for as long as you want to keep buying fish food.
Flash forward 30-35 years. My fish obsession days are long past. (Had babies instead, heh.) But I still spend a fair amount of time in hardware stores and there I was in the glue section and here’s something I’ve never seen before, called GOOP. Plumber’s Goop specifically, and what I wanted to do was try to keep the sole of a jogging shoe from habitually jogging off in its own direction, which has nothing much to do with plumbing. But the blurb on the package said it was tough and long lasting and stuck to everything in the Known Universe and stayed flexible. Plus, Silastic had been $24.95 per tube in 1966 money. Goop was $4.95 for the same size tube, in 2000 money which you might as well not even call dollars any more, just say pesos. So heck, let’s risk it.
The moment I got it home and punctured the tube tip the house filled up with an intense odor of acetic acid. I am all like AHA, I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THIS SHITE IS. So I glued my errant sole to the shoe uppers and clamped it all together overnight and that was the END of that sole’s desire for any form of independent career. In fact I wore the heel off round and a hole all the way through the rubber where my big toe accelerates the Earth (slightly) by pressing down on the asphalt.
So that’s why I’m curious to know whether any of these other shoo-gloo products smell like they might be first cousin to a jar of industrial strength pickles.
Thanks! Inquiring minds want to know!
