Category Archives: Fixing Broken Stuff!

2. I brushed WEST SYSTEM® 105/206 onto both surfaces and fit the joint together.

Upright Bass Repair

by Bruce Niederer — GBI Technical Advisor

Above: I brushed WEST SYSTEM® 105/206 onto both of the upright bass’s repair surfaces and fit the joint together.

Just by luck, I was in the right place at the right time to purchase an old upright bass from the local school system for $50 because, sadly, the orchestra (stringed instruments) program was being discontinued. The bass needed strings and a new peg but was in decent shape—until I got my hands on it! As it was standing in the corner of my room patiently waiting for me to get to it, a gust of wind got there first, knocking it down and breaking the neck at the heel. Continue reading →

Before the G/flex shoe repair: the blown-out sole.

G/flex Shoe Repair

A Step in the Right Direction

by Julie Jezowski

Above: The cracked sole of Julie’s favorite boot prior to this G/flex shoe repair.

My good ol’ faithful boots (meaning they’re old and need to be thrown out but I just can’t do it) blew a deep crack in each sole. I figured what a great time to try out our G/flex Epoxy. Continue reading →

Repairing a Hockey Stick

by Captain James R. Watson

Above: The final step in this hockey stick repair is applying a layer of fiberglass tape to the repair area with G/flex 650 for additional reinforcing.

Ice hockey sticks are exposed to cold temperatures plus high shock forces from contact with the puck as well as with the ice and skates. Hockey sticks can be wood/fiberglass laminates or composites of carbon fiber or aramid. The stick blades often chip and split with use and have to be repaired (or else replaced at $50–$150 each). A customer who repairs and maintains hockey sticks for a local team had been using a conventional epoxy for repairs and found that it often chipped under such use. Continue reading →

A properly engineered Scootboard chassis. Even without the resources of a well-equipped test lab, Bill Bertelsen, GBI’s test engineer, was able to gather useful composites data using the equipment at hand—in this case, a spring clamp, a ruler, a digital camera, and an 8-year-old girl.

Fortifying a Spare-Parts Scootboard

by Bill Bertelsen, GBI Test Engineer

Above: A properly engineered scootboard chassis. Even without the resources of a well-equipped test lab, Bill Bertelsen, GBI’s test engineer, was able to gather useful composites data using the equipment at hand—in this case, a spring clamp, a ruler, a digital camera, and an 8-year-old girl. ,

“Daddy, can we build a scooter from these old pieces of wood?” Continue reading →

pot repair

One-Shot Pot Repair

by Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Above: The cracked polyurethane foam planter pot upon which Tom performed this simple pot repair with epoxy. You can see the household cling wrap he used to hold the cracked pot together while the epoxy cured.

My wife Mary and I recently went to the local building center to purchase a large planter pot for our patio. After we had agreed on a nice large terra-cotta beauty, I noticed another large pot that had a serious crack. I asked the associate for a price on it, knowing it would be easy to repair with WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. He said I would be doing him a favor if I took it away. So we came home with two pots for the price of one. Continue reading →

metal door repair with 410 Microlight

Metal Door Repair

WEST SYSTEM 410 Microlight® to the Rescue!

by Jim Derck—GBI Technical Advisor

Above: Jim Derck describes how he used 410 Microlight in a metal door repair. Image: A knocker on a metal door. Photo by Felix Luo on Unsplash 

At the end of moving day, after many large items had passed through the doorway, our house’s metal door was left with a nasty crease about a foot long. The door was made of steel and had a foam core. The needed repair was just a fairing application with no structural component. Continue reading →

1—Statue repairs: Shep after being knocked off his base.

The Limitations of Statues

Statue Repairs with Epoxy

by Bill Bertelsen, GBI Test Engineer

Above: Statue repairs are underway on “Shep,” a molded fiberglass figure that was knocked off its base and belongs in the outdoor nativity set of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Essexville, Michigan.

Creating lasting outdoor art has challenged humans since the dawn of time. One has only to think of the pyramids (still there), Stonehenge (mostly there), the Colossus of Rhodes (long gone), or the Easter Island monoliths (surviving, but then two heads are better than one). In more recent times, there’s Mt. Rushmore, Stone Mountain Georgia, and the Statue of Liberty. The goal is nothing less than perpetuity. But of course, outdoor sculpture needs to be done right or it won’t last. Making statues, e.g., permanent structures that look like people, is particularly difficult. Continue reading →

non-skid catalyzed gelcoat

Repair Your Non-Skid Surface

With a flexible non-skid mold

by Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

If the patterned non-skid on your production-built fiberglass boat needs repair, you may be interested to know that flexible molds are available for making professional-looking repairs. Continue reading →

Screw strip out of particleboard furniture

Furniture Repair with G/5

A good method for particleboard furniture repair

by Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Above: Particleboard furniture repair can be tricky when screws strip out. G/5 Five Minute Epoxy Adhesive offers an easy solution to fixing inexpensive furniture when this happens.

I recently broke the leg off an old workshop table. The tabletop was made of particleboard covered with Formica®. The screws holding the leg in place had pulled out and taken chunks of particleboard with them. Continue reading →

The pool pump repair was 100% effective four month later.

Emergency Pool Pump Repair

Above: The pool pump repair was 100% effective four months later.

Barry Bew, a sailing instructor at Arethusa Venture Centre, Gravesend, Kent, UK, used his experience as a plant engineer to make an emergency repair to a swimming pool circulating pump. The pump was leaking at joints between the 3″ ABS plastic inlet and discharge pipes and the cast iron pump body. Continue reading →