Sculpting and connecting pieces

10 years ago

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself but thought I'd ask anyways.

I did look through other posts and want to be sure I'm getting the ideas right.

For connecting different pieces of tufa, I can use a bonding agent, but from what I understand, it's not going to be super durable. Can I use mortar instead as my bonding agent for greater strength and to mask that it's not all one piece?

Can I sculpt with tufa without using an armature? If so, or even if not, is there a special recipe that you guys recommend without adding plasticizer? Is using less water and a finer grit of perlite all I need to change in the recipe to make it friendly to being sculpted?

At what stage is it still "green" enough to carve? What hardness will it be at?

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Comments (6)

themes
10 years ago
For bonding tufa with tufa I use sbr mixed with 50 50 mix of sand and cement. I make sure I wet the side I am trying to bond to and also wet the tufa to bond with it. If you cover the area afterward with some plastic bag it will make the bond stronger...i.e the longer it takes to dry out the stronger the bond.
ms_minnamouse
Original Author
10 years ago
What's "sbr"? Thanks!
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monomer
10 years ago
SBR LATEX - is a carboxylated styrene butadiene copolymer latex admixture that is designed as an integral adhesive for cement bond coats, mortars and concrete to improve bond strength and chemical resistance.

I've found just using an acrylic polymer bonding emulsion (adhesive/fortifier) seem to work well enough (SikaLatex at Homedepot, or QUIKRETE Concrete Bonding Adhesive No. 9902 at Lowes, or Everbond)... however its always going to be better if you can cast and cure your project as a single piece rather than having to attach pieces together. If it must be made in two castings then you might even want to consider using reinforcements to strengthen the connection. Leave part of the reinforcement in the first casting and subsequently envelope the other half of it in within the second casting.

By the way, if you are referring to making two separately fully-cured castings first and then attaching them together then the acrylic bonding agent isn't going to do that. I have actually used Gorilla glue to do jobs like that and have been please with the results but its harder to disguise the mended area (seam).

This post was edited by monomer on Sun, Feb 16, 14 at 13:49
monomer
10 years ago
Repeat posting.
( Sorry, I can edit it but can't seem to delete it)

This post was edited by monomer on Sun, Feb 16, 14 at 12:53
themes
10 years ago
yes monomer is right it's not going to be a substitute for casting in one go. It took trial and error for me to discover this lol but I learned a lot from my mistakes so worth while :)
ms_minnamouse
Original Author
10 years ago
Why not use mortar for bonding? I tried it and got an okay result but don't think my mortar mix was very good, it was old and there were cured pieces in the container. It turned out rather sandy and loose. I don't know how mortar is cured though. Same as cement? The lime should afford adherence and bonding, I think.