Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'moisture'.
-
After rebuilding my prep station to accommodate working with my new microscope, the final part was to upgrade my air delivery with a super-sized desiccant filter. I was tired of changing out my desiccant beads 2 - 3 times a day during heavy use, so I made a DIY filter using a home water filter system. Now instead of using 4 ounces of beads, I have 4 pounds! That should finally give me a decent interval between changes.
-
The current question about shellac reminded me to ask about this. I used to use white glue (WeldBond) for all my fossil stabilizing/reassembly. Lately I've noticed that a few of my older shale pieces from my local mountain collected 8-10 years ago with cracks/joints that were repaired/stabilized seem to have slightly wider gaps than I recall them having. I'm not sure whether the glue is slightly swelling or I was just more sloppy back then as to how tight I allowed a joint to be. Could be either, but I hope the latter. I know that white glue will sort of reconstitute when you get it wet, turning white again and swelling slightly, but I don't know if it will expand noticeably with simple atmospheric moisture. These have been kept indoors all this time and we are not known for being as humid as the Southern states for instance. Has anyone else who has used white glue noticed anything like this? I don't want to hear any "don't use white glue, use Paraloid instead", I only want to know whether white glue will swell from moderate humidity. I've been using B-72 lately, but most of my Tzuhalem collection from the past 10 years has white glue in it, and the vast majority of it, including most earlier specimens, show no glue alteration of any sort. Just those few pieces seem to have larger gaps than I'd like. (I know that some people have said white glue will turn yellowish over time but I haven't noticed anything like this yet. Also, I'm not sure that all white glues are the same - I gather Elmer's and the like are made from animal parts, or were formerly, but I don't think WeldBond is.)
-
Most people who have spent a fair amount of learning about paleontology know about "the lick test", but I still can't find a real explanation to why your finger sticks to material that's porous when its wet. The only thing I've found explaining it, is basically just a rephrasing of the test itself, for example "Because it's porous" I've also heard that the saliva gets sucked from your finger into the porous material, but why does your finger stick from that?