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Life is tough. Nuns are tougher.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

All Kinds of Glue



Like everyone else on the planet, we have a junk drawer. Junk drawers are for things that can otherwise not be categorized, but need to be kept somewhere. Since, the items in a junk drawer are too valuable to throw out, but just sit idly year after year, I think people should start selling their junk drawers on ebay. The whole drawer up for sale.

Sister, What kind of glue did you use for St. Francis? Our St. Francis recently fell during a very windy day and his arm broke! Since my wife paid nearly $50 for him I'd like to try and fix him. He is made of resin.

It was something from the junk drawer. Not the junk junk drawer...the tool junk drawer. We have a drawer where we keep our tools, the kind that you need to grab: hammers, screwdrivers flat and phillip's head, tape measure, drill. Then we have a tool junk drawer that has every size of allen wrench that ever came with anything we had to put together ourselves, sand paper, cup hooks paint brushes that still have life in them, and various kinds of glue. The tool junk drawer is twice the size of the tool drawer.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help. I know it was something I grabbed out of the tool junk drawer. There are three kinds of glue in there. Two are those 'bond anything' types in a tube where, once you open the tube and use the glue, the glue bonds the cap shut forever so you can only use each tube once, unless you get everything from you house and your neighbor's house that needs gluing and do it all right then. The other is wood glue. We may have used 'crazy glue'. We keep that in the office junk basket along with mini calculators, staples that don't fit any stapler we have, three sizes of small staplers that have no staples in them, two magnifiying glasses, Elmer's glue and rubber cement.

Whatever we used on the poor head of St. Francis didn't really work, as his head is more balancing in place than glued back on. A stiff wind may just decapitate him.

You can purchase a new St. Francis from Santos Carver! It will never, ever break.

And speaking of glue:
I've never commented before, but I'm looking for help. Is there a novena I could say for family harmony, family unity, family peace...SOMETHING for this family? My family's always been close but lately financial issues (what else?) are threatening to cause deep rifts. I'm thinking St. Joseph is the saint to pray to, but is there anything special I can do?

Every saint has a novena. Just google "Novena to Saint Fill in the Blank". You might also consider praying the rosary together with your family, or doing the novena together with your family. That way, you'll all be on the same page. That might put an end to some of the schism in itself.

I'll always recommend the Infant of Prague for financial problems. That's why I recently put him on a squeezy coin purse. St. Joseph is an excellent choice for your family. He really had a lot on his plate. Wonder what it must be like to live with two people who are perfect? And we know the Holy Family was poor. Finally, there is my all time favorite, Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Here's some help on sticking with your novena. You won't even need any glue.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Wonder what it must be like to live with two people who are perfect?"

Love it. Just love it.

bill7tx said...

There is probably no kind of glue that is going to work well on a resin statue (none that you would want to work with at home, anyway) unless you provide some mechanical support. I'd suggest:

- If the statue's arm and body are hollow, find a piece of dowel rod that will fit pretty tight in the arm and the hole in the body (you might have to whittle it to fit) and use a two-part epoxy to hold the dowel in, plus a little extra to adhere the arm to the body. You will need to *lightly* sand the edges of the plastic to help the epoxy hang on.

- If the resin is solid, drill a pilot hole through the shoulder and into the body, counter-sinking the hole in the shoulder. Then use a wood screw or a self-tapping screw to put the parts together. Go to the auto store and buy some Bondo or some epoxy body putty, which you will use to fill up the hole in the shoulder. When the Bondo/body putty is cured, sand it smooth, and paint as necessary.

- Back to the hollow St. Francis, you could also try making a roll of the body putty that you could stuff into the arm until the arm is full, with an excess roll long enough to insert into the body until it is wedged in there pretty tight. I am not so sure about this method, though, and you would for sure have to find a way to prop the statue so that nothing moves while the putty cures.

One of these might work on Sister Mary Martha's St. Francis, too. But I should warn you that I have probably ruined as much stuff trying to fix it, as I have succeeded. May St. Joseph guide your hands as you work.

Anonymous said...

Sister, not to change the subject - you are quite beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sister, my sister and I are getting our wisdom teeth out next month. Since it's your favorite hobby, do you think you could find a patron saint for teeth?

Anonymous said...

We were planning a financial novena recently, and I decided, for some unexplicable reason, to go with the Infant of Prague. I've never really liked those little dolly statues, and have never been attracted to the devotion at all, but the holy card turned up while I was tidying on the day I decided to do the novena. I went with it because we are (mentally) infants when it comes to finances. And just as we finished the novena, you pop up with a post declaring Him The novena for finances. How cool is that?

Gretchen said...

Hi Sister!
So, referring back to your old post on Novenas. Are you saying that as long as I do 9 different days of the novena, even if the aren't consecutive days, the novena counts?

Wow! I've messed up more novenas than I've been successful and that would really help out!

Thanks!
Gretchen
www.simonpeters.org