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what do we do for gick-free adhesive?

 
Chris Kott
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So I was reflecting on a thread I contributed to about promoting a non-toxic lifestyle, and Dale mentioned the adhesives used to make wood products like OSB, plywood, and particle board, among others. The consensus was, like with boron contamination or certain types of older insulation products, living spaces that are at risk of offgassing gickiness should be overpressurised slightly as compared to outside, such that any such offgassing is pushed through the building envelope to the outside, rather than poisoning the inhabitants.

It occurred to me that many cultures had less chemically-intensive solutions to adhesives, though, and I have even used some, collecting up and boiling coniferous sap in Eastern Ontario to make a birchbark patch for my kevlar canoe (I punched a hole in the bottom while portaging and needed to get home sooner than help would arrive).

I haven't seen anything in this space on the forums here, but I was wondering if anyone had ideas about naturally sourced, gick-free adhesives that could be used both in construction, and for fabrication of panelling that would rank well on the Wheaton Eco-scale. Would a coniferous sap-based adhesive work?

-CK

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
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Mike Haasl
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I think hide glue could be an option for some circumstances.  It's used for wood working but I'm not sure what else.

SKIP books, get 'em while they're hot!!! Skills to Inherit Property

 
Dustin Rhodes
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Maybe not ideal for building, but there's also fish glue, casein glue(from milk), and paper paste from wheat flour(gluten).

Many recipes for these can be found with the Google, if you're interested.

Growing on my small acre in SW USA; Fruit/Nut trees w/ annuals, Chickens, lamb, pigs; rabbits and in-laws onto property soon.
Long term goal - chairmaker, luthier, and stay-at-home farm dad. Check out my music! https://www.youtube.com/@Dustyandtheroadrunners

 
Chris Kott
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Good thoughts, thanks guys.

Flour and water paste was traditionally used in casemaking, book binding, and casing-in of books, along with horse glue.

My thoughts had more to do with the sap of conifers, inspired by my practical experience. I was wondering if there was potential for toxicity from dried sap used as adhesive for wood. I was also wondering what, if anything, would work to raise the melting temperature of the sap, such that perhaps it would require heating for application, but otherwise wouldn't heat up enough to delaminate or otherwise cause problems in construction.

I think that, while outside of my personal work experience, this has potential as a permie-approved approach to conventional wood construction products. Hypothetically speaking, wouldn't a wood product that didn't offgass anything, that could readily replace more toxic conventional building materials on store shelves right now, be of benefit to making permaculture more accessible?

-CK

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein

 
Mike Haasl
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Gotcha, you're aiming more towards ways to use conifer sap as an adhesive.  The only insight I have is that I used some pine boards for cement forms.  Then used them as scaffold planks.  Then stained them white and installed them as a catwalk in my greenhouse.  Then it got up to 125F in there and they started bleeding sap out through the stain.  

SKIP books, get 'em while they're hot!!! Skills to Inherit Property

 
Chris Kott
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Which is exactly what I see happening with poorly-thought-out sap-based plywood, never mind the osb or particle variety. What exactly happens to a building whose adhesives just leak out of the wood?

-CK

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein

 
Mike Haasl
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They fall down

SKIP books, get 'em while they're hot!!! Skills to Inherit Property

 
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