CAST-IRON FIX THAT ACTUALLY STICKS
Jeanne Huber advises readers on how to repair a chipped planter, remove a stain.
QThe wind blew over my castiron pot planter, causing three pieces to chip off. I tried gluing them on with Gorilla Glue, but because of their weight, they did not stick. Do you have any suggestions?
AOriginal Gorilla Glue is polyurethane adhesive, a type that needs moisture to cure. So you’re supposed to mist one surface of each mating pair of parts with water or wipe it down with a damp cloth. Then you need to keep the parts tightly clamped together for one to two hours, perhaps with tape if you don’t have clamps or if, as in your case, the parts are shaped in a way that makes it difficult to clamp them. But tape doesn’t hold well when the parts are heavy and damp, as you may have discovered.
Try taping the pieces together when they are dry, without glue. If you can get them to hold, switch to a type of glue that doesn’t require you to wet the surfaces. Steel-reinforced epoxy, commonly known as liquid weld, works on cast iron. One example, J-B Weld Cold-Weld Steel Reinforced Epoxy with Hardener — from $11.69 at Rona, depending on store location and availability — for a package with one ounce (28 grams) of epoxy and one ounce (28 g) of hardener. There is also a quicker-setting version, called KwikWeld ($10.49 at Canadian Tire). Although it is just two-thirds as strong, it would probably work just as well for your project.
With either formula, clean the surfaces first, ideally with acetone (nail polish remover) or lacquer thinner. Or you can use soap and water, because grease residue probably isn’t an issue for a planter. Also scuff up the surfaces with rough sandpaper or a metal file. When the surfaces are completely dry, squeeze out equal-length noodles from each tube, mix the ingredients thoroughly for several minutes, then spread the goo and hold the pieces together with tape. If you use the original formula, wait four to six hours before handling and 15 to 24 hours before putting the planter back into use. KwikWeld sets in six minutes and cures in four to six hours.
If you can’t figure out a way to hold the pieces together while glue sets, a welding shop may be able to help — but the repair probably wouldn’t be cheap.
QI have a family quilt on which dye from the embroidery thread has bled onto the fabric. Is there a way to remove it?
AThere are ways that sometimes work to remove red dye from fabric. You can soak an item for a half-hour in a solution made with one tablespoon (15 mL) of ammonia and a half-teaspoon (2.5 mL) of liquid detergent per quart of warm water. Or you can try brushing on rubbing alcohol and blotting up the liquid as it picks up some of the colour, repeating this until no more stain comes off. And there are products such as Rit Color Remover ($8.70 on Amazon.ca) that are designed to treat a whole load of clothes that got accidentally dyed in the wash.
But although these may work when dye from a red garment bleeds onto ones that are white or light colours, the issue with your quilt is far more complex. You need to somehow not affect the colour of the embroidery thread while removing the stain from the surrounding fabric.
TJ Iijima, who runs LookSharp Cleaners, said that although his company can remove red dye from some items, restoring your quilt is “on the lower probability scale of something we could address.” He said it might require using an eyedropper and working “dot by dot” — a herculean task for something as big as a quilt.
Occasionally, repeatedly cleaning an item is enough to dramatically lessen a stain, he said. “If embroidery has bled once, it might be done with its bleeding,” he said. “So repeat cleaning might help.”