What concentration of Butvar 76 should I use?

[KimTexan]

1 hour ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Try picking it off with a fine dental pick. Often, you can get it to peel off the bone.

 

You can also apply acetone to it to soften the glue and pick it off.

I’ll try that. I have realized the peeling part. I did use the pick to pry some out, but there was internal bone loss in the process 

 

I switched to the old brand of CA. It worked a little better, but there are still issues. Moisture wasn’t an issue on one bone. I had a hyoid bone that I processed (washed off) for the first time 2 nights ago and put back in a ziplock still wet. I have numerous ziplocks of stuff that are very small bones or fragments that I haven’t touched yet.

The hyoid bone still had moisture, but did not want to bond. I put quite a bit of glue on the edge of the periosteum and inside edge. It didn’t bond. Finally I held it together and put glue on the exterior of the bone along the crack. That got me more results than anything.

This is a cross section of the hyoid. There is plenty of solid bonding surface. It isn’t very porous. The glue sat on the edge and got hard while I held it together for a few minutes without a bond.Same with the 7 bonds I attempted tonight.

 

Finally I held it together just so and then lined the outside edge of the fracture with glue and held it. That worked but still took holding for a minute or so.

This is a cross-section of a radius. Do they normally look this way? It almost looks like wood. I guess the bone is mostly just compact bone with little spongy bone. That is about the middle of the radius. The ends have normal porous bone texture.

This radius was broken into 3 pieces. I went through the same thing. I moisturized (auto corrected from moistened. I liked moisturized better.) No bonding occurred. So I held it together and put glue long the fracture line and then held for about 1 minuet. It bonded!

 

I also have a piece I’m not sure what it is. I think is the end of a rib or spinous process of some kind. It looks like it wouldn’t have an epiphyseal end to it like the other ribs. It looks like it would terminate at a narrow point.

 

I also had the end of a spinous process for a thoracic vertebra. The end was in several pieces. I had 3 of the pieces and got them glued. Here are the bones I glued last night.

[Ptychodus04]

Ok, that is super weird. I’ve never had this happen with my glues. Maybe your bison has supernatural powers.

[KimTexan]

On 2/7/2019 at 10:06 PM, Ptychodus04 said:

Ok, that is super weird. I’ve never had this happen with my glues. Maybe your bison has supernatural powers.

This isn’t directly related to glue, but in the lab where I work we have things that inhibit chemical reactions from taking place.

 

I think the glue I first tried with was an inferior product.

 

Maybe there is a certain type or degree of moisture. Or maybe I have to do it a certain way. I’ve never had any issues with gluing other fossils here in Texas, but they haven’t been bone. 

It may just take me some practice or some technique to figure it out. This is new media for me.

 

You mentioned something about using straps and various other things or ways to stabilize fossils while allowing the bond to cure.

Do you have pictures of those in use? I need a visual. Then maybe I can figure out how to rig something.

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, KimTexan said:

 

You mentioned something about using straps and various other things or ways to stabilize fossils while allowing the bond to cure.

Do you have pictures of those in use? I need a visual. Then maybe I can figure out how to rig something.

 

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of bones oddly supported or strapped together. I never thought to take a photo of that. 

 

You can use anything that will hold the bones as the glue sets. Be used towels, sandbags, straps, rope, wires, boards, and even a sandbox to hold a piece upright. Each application will require something different as the bones and breaks are different.