sandgroper Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Gday all, . Recently I bought a nice Edmontosaurus metatarsal which arrived this week, unfortunately somewhere along the 20000 kilometre trip to Australia it was broken. It was packaged well by the seller but the box was ripped and damaged when it arrived on my doorstep - would be nice if the posties took a bit more care of people's property when it is entrusted into their hands but that's another story. The bone has been broken in half with a smaller piece being broken from one of the halves. I can match it up very well which is good but my question is what is the best glue to use for this purpose? I was going to use super glue to repair it but thought it might save me some grief if I asked here first before I make it even worse. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this, cheers, Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelhead9 Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Yes, superglue or any cyanoacrylate would work well on this repair. 1 Still Life Fossils Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmegalodon Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 hey there. That is one good looking dinosaur bone! I also had that problem when I shipped my dinosaur claw to Australia. Its a small fossil so I used Tarzans Grip. Not sure if you could use it with a big one like that. Good luck though! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgroper Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 Thanks gents, I'll try the super glue and see how that goes. Its a great looking bone so I'd like the repair to look as inconspicuous as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Ouch, oh no that's too bad Dave but looks like a really nice metatarsal. That center looks a bit toasty why it probably broke. Agreed a cyanoacrylate would work but I would use one that is a liquid not a gel. You want it to penetrate into all the crevasses in that center. Any excess that comes out on the bone can be cleaned with a cotton swab with acetone. Like to get @jpc input. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgroper Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 Thanks Frank, I'd probably have used the gel but I think you're right, it will penetrate better using the liquid. It really is a great looking bone. Thanks for your help in identifying the bones I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moriniboy Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Nice item, myself I would consider consoilidating around the areas to be rejoined with vinac or Paraloid B72, otherwise you may risk a fracture close by i.e. where the superglue does not penetrate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 Superglue is good to use. Coat the broken surfaces with thin cyanoacrylate (=superglue). Then use thicker stuff to glue the pieces tpgether. Glue the two smaller pieces together first, the glue them to the bigger piece. A great way to glue things is to make yourself a wee sand box that you bone can fit into, with the broken edge facing up. Place this piece such that you can balance the piece to be glued on it. Then you can put your thicker glue on the piece that will balance, and place said piece into position. The glue will tend to flow downhill into the base piece (gravuty) and you can walk away and not have to hold the pieces while the glue sets. I call this a gravity clamp. Paraloud is also good, byt may be harder to find. if any of this is confusicating, please ask. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgroper Posted March 22, 2017 Author Share Posted March 22, 2017 Thanks so much for your help and advice everyone, I really appreciate you all sharing your knowledge with me. jpc, the sand box sounds like a great idea, very helpful info. I'll wait until the weekend when I have more time and I'll see if I can put it back together. I'm really glad I decided to ask for advice before I attempted to repair the bone and I'm very grateful for the help. I'll post some pics here once I've glued it back together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgroper Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Well, I took the advice of jpc and filled a bucket with sand to support the larger section of bone which worked really well. I then used very thin liquid super glue to coat all of the broken ends which soaked into the bone and no doubt strengthened it. Then I used a thicker liquid super glue and really coated the smaller broken piece and reattached them. The only real drama I had was that although I practiced lining up the broken halves together several times before I applied the glue so I knew I'd get it right, as soon as I covered the end in glue I just couldn't get them to line up properly which was very frustrating! Anyway, it is done now and I'm glad it is in one piece. Thanks for help and advice, I really appreciate it. Here's a couple of photos of the procedure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgroper Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 ..... And the bone repaired... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDudeCO Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Looks great! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Ey, cracker job Mate!! 1 Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgroper Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 5 minutes ago, ynot said: Ey, cracker job Mate!! Hahaha, thanks mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Good job. Can we see a few other pix from different angles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgroper Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Yes, of course, thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgroper Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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