Thread: Gluing Bricks

G'Day my "canuck friend",
A the Tradies Expo in Sydney a fortnight back the Kinchrome people had on display the "Gorilla Glue".
On glue they'd used to glue brick, timber & steel together; very impressive.
I think it was a polyurethane glue; below is the web page from USA & Aussie.

GORILLA GLUE AUSTRALIA | GLUES | GLUE LIST | Gorilla Glue

http://www.gorillatough.com/index.php?page=glues

I hope that helps.
Cheers, crowie.

PS - Otherwise you could have a look at exterior grade "liquid nails"...

To glue bricks together epoxy would be good, just thicken it with talc or brick dust if you want to match the colour. Pre wet the bricks with thin epoxy and then use thick stuff to glue. That will take up the small gaps that the different sizes of bricks make when you try to put hem together. Clean up the face of the bricks before it hardens or use a heat gun to remove the spills when hard. Real mortar does not keep bricks together it keeps them apart.

Good luck, Pics when finished..
Peter

You could try Maxbond. FULLER Max Bond
Have a look at the Technical Data Sheet.

Ah, food for thought, thank you all. I have Gorilla glue. Unfortunately, it placed last in the testing done by Fine Woodworking Magazine (Syracuse Uni Materials Testing made the numbers). Titebond III was best. But for brick? I will try the GG. Don't much care what FWM has to say, my interests differ. HA! time for brick gluing experiments!

My real obstacle is that I have a serious allergy to epoxy adhesives. Too much and too messy for too many years.

The deal is that I want to carve something stone-like. Most mountain rock around here is quite badly fractured = hard to get big enough useful pieces. So, I thought that I'd make my own stone from bricks. Hit it with a masonry disk at 10,000rpm in my angle grinder.
About 3 x 2 x 2 bricks.
Sure, I can get boulders = stones up to the the size of a truck. They exist because they were too hard to grind into dust in the last ice age. There's a green one, out in a gravel pit. . . . . . . .

I want to see the photos!!!!

Originally Posted by Barry_White

You could try Maxbond. FULLER Max Bond
Have a look at the Technical Data Sheet.

Forget maxbond, garbage, use Sikaflex.............

Rather then bricks have you thought of using aerated concrete blocks (Hebel blocks). This can easily be cut using handsaws and carved using mallet and chisels.

Here are some links to this stuff. Here and here and here.


Peter.

Thanks Sturdee.
I'll look into that. From the company video, very interesting process but the buried steel reinforcing mesh will spoil my day.
Another possibility is Plaster of Paris with expanded mica insulation stirred into it. I know a supplier that wants to get rid of a couple tons of the plaster from a customer order that flopped.

Still, as a base for a big wood carving, the warmth of the color of brick (choices, too) would be appealing.

Hi RV,
The larger Hebel panels have a steel mesh reinforcing. But the smaller blocks don't and are typically cut and shaped with low tpi hand saw. I don't know what North Amerkican companies call it. Search the forums and you might find pics.

I think it sounds like an interesting carving medium but then I haven't done any.

Originally Posted by dabbler

Hi RV,
The larger Hebel panels have a steel mesh reinforcing. But the smaller blocks don't and are typically cut and shaped with low tpi hand saw.

Beat me to it Dabbler. Saw it being used on one of those reno show with Jamie Durie or even Don Burke. Must have been ages ago. Just cutting to shape with a handsaw and shaped with chisels and those Surform rasps.

Peter.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

Saw it being used on one of those reno show with Jamie Durie or even Don Burke.

Peter.

That's quite an admission Peter. You were just channel-surfing, right ?
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Okay.
I'll admit to watching Don back in the day.

Yes, I used to watch them but on those shows they explained what they did and how. Unlike the current crop which are only soapies and a waste of time.


Peter.

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete. Just might make an interesting carving material.

While Canadian websites are just a gusher of accolades, you think those dumb bunnies would reveal a) who makes it and b) where to buy it?

I have a construction/landscaping insider connection to try. You have $5,000,000 to fix up your garden? Not much, but they "might" take it on.

In the meantime, I'll buy some masonry cutoff disks and a diamond wheel for my angle grinder. Still have a pile of bricks and a pile of slate.

Too funny! Not today. All set to go and the neighbors are getting their house painted down wind from where I was going to play with rocks and bricks!

Construction adhesive, by whatever name, is a latex based adhesive with a lot of 'filler' in it - Fuller Max Bond and Skiflex are all related. Main advantage is that they are gap filling, slightly (or more) flexible when set (epoxy is relatively brittle) and weather resistant. I repaired a loose brick on the top of an outdoor wall about 20 years ago & it is still sitting firmly in place.