[Nhcoll-l] Repairing historical glass lid

[Douglas Yanega]

On 11/1/24 8:12 AM, Menard, Katrina wrote:
> Does anyone know if there is a glue/epoxy that we could use to 
> stabilize the cracks in the jar lid that won’t react with the ethanol 
> preservative? Further, I’m not sure if there is a glue that won’t 
> expand too much that it will further compromise the seal while we look 
> for a more permanent solution.

I suspect the real question is how permanent do you mean by permanent. 
There are a fair number of options for creating a gasket or seal, and 
there's a lot of variation in how long they can be expected to hold up 
over time. For example, just some inert glassware grease of some sort 
would be easy to apply, and easy to re-apply in the future, though not 
strictly speaking permanent. We have some enormous relaxing jars, sealed 
only with grease, and the water in these jars hasn't evaporated yet 
(I've been here 25 years, and these jars pre-date me) but we can open 
and close the jars just fine. I think once I had to add like a fingertip 
worth of fresh grease to one of them in that time, because it had become 
almost impossible to get the lid off. I don't see why a crack can't be 
sealed the same way.

Peace,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314  voicemail:951-827-8704
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   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
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