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My 5 yr old daughter broke her teapot. It is NOT made of wood:rolleyes: . (It is clay) She wants dad to fix it. She USES it for hot tea. My wife is concerned with toxicity of any glue that I might use. Any suggestions? If I can not satisfy my wife, I will just have to glue it up with the understanding that she can no longer use it for real.

Tim,

What about an epoxy (JB weld or equiv)? Guess it depends on whether it is more important to look unbroken - or to be able to use with hot liquids again (often a conversation I have with my daughter about broken things...).

All the best,

Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the suggestion; I have used JB Weld with mixed results. It has worked well for many things and probably would work well for this application; however, I can't prove to my wife that it is not toxic and she worries greatly about our daughter's allergies. I am looking for something that will pass SWMBO's scrutiny and I will have to prove it.

Hi Tim,

I don't have an answer but if you were to contact someone who repairs china/stoneware type items they might we willing to let you know what can be done. I've done some repairs to things but never put them back in to service due to worring more about what would happen if the glue did fail with say a hot tea in it... don't want the hot tea spilling on your lap.

If you don't want to go that way go to an Ace or simular hardware and see what they offer. I must have 3 or 4 tubes of glue in my glue can that would be used for this type of repair and they will have lables if it is food safe.

I still have a box of kids things to be repaired and the youngest is 28... maybe its safe to part with it now, they will have forgotten that I never got to it or I failed in my attempts.

Ed

a1gutterman

I think your biggest problem is finding something that expands and contracts at the same rate as the clay of the pot. I really don't think there is anything other than clay. Even a slight difference will cause the fix, what ever you use, to fail again eventually.

The second problem is your daughters allergies, you need something that becomes totally inert and just by the nature of adhesives that is almost a contradiction of terms.

My suggestion would be to enroll you daughter in a pottery class and let her make her replacement pot. She would be learning new skills, get a sense of accomplishment and with the exception of the glazing (which could be done for her) not be exposed to anything that would stir up allergies.

Imagine her thrill when her pot comes out of the oven bright and shiney and decorated to her perfect style. I think you have a perfect opportunity to strenghten your father daughter bond here.
Ed

Duct tape!

I appreciate your wife's concern about toxicity, but you should remind her that the toxicity ratings are given before the resin has cured in case someone should drink a cup of glue. When the adhesive resin cures, it either reacts with oxygen (like yellow glue), water vapor (like super glue) or a catalyst (like epoxy) and forms a chemical "matrix." By and large, these matrices cannot be dissolved by digestive enzymes and are essentially non-toxic when completely cured. The caveat in this good news is that some adhesives, particularly some of the older epoxies and almost all super glues, incorporate heavy metal salts and other poisonous chemicals that may leech out in digestion.

In addition to toxicity, you should also be concerned that some glues, like super glue, degrade when in contact with water -- even some glues that are formulated for ceramics. And epoxy fails in the presence of heat in excess of 160 degrees F!

If it were one of my granddaughters, I would probably reach for my Titebond II or another "outdoor" aliphatic-resin glue. It has a surprisingly good reputation among ceramicists and is comparitively low in toxicity even before it's cured. My only concern would be that it looses a good deal of its strength in the presence of heat -- it goes "thermoplastic" (semi-liquid). Whether or not it would stand up to boiling water is a question for the manufacturer.

With all good wishes,

Regular Titebond fails at 145-150 degrees, and TB II is even less heat-resistant.

In the guitar-repair world, the standard method for opening an AR joint is to inject steam. TB won't withstand boiling water.

Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate your thoughts. I think that I like Ed in Tampa's idea the best, which does not even include any glue:rolleyes: .