Forums > Technical Discussion > Glued wicks

Posted: 11th Aug 2002
i'm a virgin kevlar crafter this very coupla weeks. but i have two rumors, and maybe veterans can tell us both more:

(1) besides school glue, "crazy glue" may work as well, and stand up to heat

(2) drilling a hole through your toy (staff in your case) where it serves as the core of the kevlar head/roll lets you then use kevlar thread or even yarn to sew the head in place, and it's kevlar on kevlar, heat-wise (though there might be some stresses against the thread, wear-wise, if it isn't snug)

~ Mike

molten cheers,

~ FireMike

FireMikeZ@yahoo.com (personal messages welcome, no promo spam, please!)
Laguna, California, US

Posted: 11th Aug 2002
White glue works great. After a couple of burns it will get real hard and stick well to the metal. One piece of advise, take sand paper and skuff the heck out of the metal, it will help the glue hold better.

Nothing good ever comes from hanging out with normal people.

Posted: 12th Aug 2002
i was just thinking insted of gluing the wick you could take all the wick of and fill the bit where the screw came from with some kind of wood gap filler. then you could screw the screws back in to the wood and it would be like there was never a hole there.

any who just my 3 cents

Bandaid girl

I {Heart} hand me downs and spinning in the snow.<br /><br />

Posted: 12th Aug 2002
I haven't tried making a staff with a glued-on wick, but I'd be concerned that the coils of wicking would fly outward like a Chinese yo-yo when spun, unless every winding was glued to the last. Even then, I'd want something more secure. I haven't found a glue yet that has enough structural strength to satisfy me for something like this.

When I construct a staff, I drill straight through the wood, and run a machine screw from one side of the wicking bundle straight through to the other, where I anchor it with a screw post.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy

Posted: 12th Aug 2002
what about thread/yarn sewing, adam?

they look more like a finished edge, not so obtrusive, but you don't trust them, and always favor some nice steel like a screw or a bolt, huh?

molten cheers,

~ FireMike

FireMikeZ@yahoo.com (personal messages welcome, no promo spam, please!)
Laguna, California, US

Posted: 13th Aug 2002
One thing that might be worth trying (but I haven't, yet) would be to anchor the wick using machine screws, as I usually do, but leaving a long flap of kevlar tape hanging loose. Wrap that around once or twice again, and then sew that down with kevlar thread. It would be a lot of fooling around, but it would cover the hot metal.

My concern with using only thread to affix anything is that it can wear through. Staves see a lot of abuse, especially around the wicks, and I think they need to be built to take it.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy

Posted: 13th Aug 2002
Jep

I dont know how much trouble you want to go through what you might try is going to a home depot type store in the cabnit dept you will find threaded inserts for wood the inserts are made from metel all you do is dril the right size hole in the wood for the insert then install the insert with a litle wood glue that will give you metel to metel contact on your conection . then when you put the new bolt through your wick put a little high temp lock tight on it..

I dont make wooden staves but i pretty much use that same theaory on my aluim ones insted of a insert i dril a hols and tap theards into the staff.. i also use hidden hardware i run the bolts through my 1st 2 wraps around the staff then glue the wicking toghter with a high temp glue then finish my wick and glue and sew the end with industarial kevlar thread.. i have yet to have a wick come off.. and this way you can still change the wick without alot of work cause nothing is glues to the staff its self

I have been cursed with the imagination to envision it all

Posted: 14th Aug 2002
humm, the logical thing would be to use 1" flated bolts and just weld the nut into the holes onna staff. Problems are: ally staff, anyone gotta TIG? can you TIG steel nut to ally staff? You could solder, but it woud kneed to be really high temprature. Brass solder would do it, Oxy-aceteline anyone?

N

This is a post by tom, all spelling is deleberate
-><- Kallisti

Posted: 14th Aug 2002
Nix
good idea but you cant weld steel to aluim
you might be able to get it to stick but it will have no strength..

I have been cursed with the imagination to envision it all

Posted: 14th Aug 2002
How about an epoxy putty? (like Milliput)

should be good for 1500 degrees and sets underwater! (humm)

have to mold it round everything, alow for expansion/ect.

other thing is about no metal. why not have a generous overlap and in what is going to be the top make two largish slits (Ive alvays found stanlyknives to be the best cutter of kevlar). then make your holes as normal (much grunting) and when you insert the bolts/screwsthe washer goes under the first layer and ontop of the overlapped wick, the head follows it, fitting it through the first layer. you can sew or glue the top layer up.

disavantage, it will break eventually, and youll have strip hangin off, but you can just cut it off and carry on without hitting yourself (always a low energy alternative). but it would be good for transfers, eating and stuff and it sound a little more hardwearing than sewing it or glueing it.

incedentally, Im recovering from my worst burn jet, and it came from the shaft, not the fastenings. Minero has some lovely little round scars mind you...

have fun,

N?

This is a post by tom, all spelling is deleberate
-><- Kallisti

Posted: 14th Aug 2002
Personally I wouldn't trust white glue, but I have heard maelstrom talk up its virtues before so he may be onto something. I would use something like JB weld, wich is an epoxy designed spicificly for metal. It was a very high heat tolerance and is brilliant stuff. I use it to lock all my nuts and bolts in place on my wicks and staff. I have no idea how it would adhere to kevlar itself. I would tend to, as Adamrice first suggested, drill a hole straight through your staff so that you are not anchored into the wood itself, but to a bolt using washers and nuts to hold down your wick, but then I am really big on quality of the toys I build, so once I build it I don't want to have to do a lot of matienence on it, but at the same time if something should go wrong I want to be able to take everything apart and fix it. But then that's just me.

[ 15 August 2002, 15:21: Message edited by: SickpuPpy ]

Jesus helps me trick people.

Posted: 2nd Nov 2004
So I'm thinking of making a set of Pixie Sticks as I have the wood, the alu' tape and the wick lying around home - but the wood is far too thin too screw into really and the wicks aren't going to be massive so the wick-metal ratio will be a little too high as I want to use them for throwing

So I heard PVA glue can be used to attach the wicks and found this thread Someone else mentioned that the hotter it gets, the harder it gets which sounds good.

Does anyone use this still?

Burner of Toast
Spinner of poi
Slacker of enormous magnitude

Posted: 2nd Nov 2004
Good Durb there..umm.. Durbs.

Posted: 2nd Nov 2004
use pva to glue the inside of the wick to the stick



and sew the wick down on outside with kevlar thread.



if the stitching is very strong and solid and plentiful i reckon it'l do the job.



in fact i might try it myself.



edit/



disclaimer, i didnt read the rest of the thread. so i didnt see anything about the thread.







Durbs, i use pva to stop my wicks fraying. it does the job and doesnt melt or anything.
EDITED_BY: ado-p (1099404961)

Love is the law.

Posted: 2nd Nov 2004
Good idea there..umm.. ado-p

Posted: 2nd Nov 2004
Hmmmmmm - sewing you say?
I'll ask mum

Burner of Toast
Spinner of poi
Slacker of enormous magnitude

Posted: 2nd Nov 2004
Wow, old thread!! Been over two years since my wooden staff broke, doesn't time fly??

Still not too sure if a wick could be completely held on with glue, don't remember exactly how (or if) I solved the problem. However, white glue does firm up quite well - I've used it to hold the somewhat tenuous knots on my ropes in place, and it has stood up to repeated burns without the knots loosening at all. Lots of friction at work there as well, tho; the glue isn't holding things together all by itself.

Alternatively, you could try a bolt straight through the wick and wood, and out the other side, saw off the excess bolt thread when the nut is tight. Depends on just how thin the wood is, I guess.

J

If you're not confused, you're not thinking about things hard enough.