# Adventures in Driftwood



## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

I recently went on a search around the internet looking for a nice branching piece of driftwood that would fit in my Eclipse12. After weeks of searching I came up empty-handed. Everything was either too big or too expensive (I saw one website trying to sell a 12" piece for $40). So I decided to make my own.

I bought an assortment of some great looking grapevine pieces off of eBay for about $12 with shipping and three days later I starting piecing together my masterpiece. After 2 weeks of siliconing and tearing apart and resiliconing, it was finally done. Oh what a wonderful site it was! A 4" trunk which branched into three 1.5"-2" legs, each of which bent and curved and split into two smaller branches that ended on a mat of large river pebbles silioconed together to form the weighted base. I even brought my wife outside to marvel at it when I finished. She was not as enthused about it as I was, so I told her she could go back to changing the baby's diaper.

I placed the entire structure in a large styrofoam cooler filled with water out in the hot Florida summer sun to let the tannens leach out. I made it a habit to change the water at least every other day. Partly because the tannens darkened the water fairly quickly but mainly because my wife was deathly afraid that mosquitoes where going to breed in there and I got nagged into doing it. One day, about a week later, I went to change the water, and saw something floating in the water. As I got closer, I realized that a piece had become unattached. No big deal, I'll just let it dry out and resilicon it. I went to grab the structure and it disintegrated as soon as I touched it. I sat there kind of dumbfounded for a second. Then there was a tremdous "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" that you all probably heard about a month ago, I think there were reports of it being heard along the western coast of Africa. That was me, on my knees, shaking my fists at the sky. If only I had taken a picture (of the structure,that is, not of me in the fetal postion). I didn't even get to say good-bye. :crybaby:

So after a couple days of mourning, I gathered up the pieces and tried to figure out what had gone wrong. Upon examination I found that the silicon just peeled right off of the driftwood without a hint that anything was there. Apparently while silicon sticks to dry wood, it does not actually soak into it. So when the wood soaked up the water, the water just pushed the silicon off of the surface of the wood. It was time to try a different method.

I didn't want to try screws or fishing line because I'm afraid that as the wood softens, these things will loosen and I'll end up right back where I started again. So I decided on a different adhesive, Loctite's new Sumo Glue. It's waterproof, fairly strong, and their website has two dudes in fat suits breaking stuff, so I did a trial run with it. I took two pieces that were leftover from the original order and were not part of the sturucture, glued them together and let them sit in the cooler full of water for a week, aftwer which I took them out. They diddn't disentigrate on contact, that was a plus, but I was able to pry them apart with minimal effort. The glue had foamed a lot, which I had antisipated, and I could pick the foam off with my nails. However, the glue that was in contact with the wood had not foamed, was very hard and had definately soaked into the wood and bonded with it better that the silicon.

After talking with some people in some carpenrty forums, I've come to the conclusion that the reason the glue didn't hold as well was because there was very little mating surfaces. Meaning the round knobby surfaces of the driftwood did not sit flush up against each other, like two flat surfaces would, there were only a few very small areas where wood was in contact with wood. I actually took pictures of it this time:

Here are the pieces I chose for the experiment









Here they are glued together









Soaking









And here they are apart again with the other leftover pieces









A close up of the foamy glue









So to increase the mating surface, I decided to use dowels. The same thing is done in marine tanks where a hole is drilled through two or more pieces of live rock and an acrylic rod is pushed through the hole and epoxied in place, thus bonding the rocks together. I bought three different sizes of dowels this morning and set to work. I clamped two pieces together, drilled a hole through them, covered the dowel in a thin coat of Sumo Glue and shoved it through the hole. I decided to just skip the experimental phase and just build the stucture, partly because I'm sure of the glues holding ablilities and partly because I'm just plain old impatient. I have built a structure that I am very pleased with. Though it is not as elaborate as the original, it is definately a lot sturdier. I will let it cure over night and toss it back into the cooler in the morning.

I can't get any pictures of it yet, since my wife took the camera with her on a trip. But here are some pics I took of the pieces I'm working with:

Here are the remnants of the original structure








The one on the right is actually three pieces that were just barely still siliconed together. It used to be two of the legs.

Here they are standing up









Well that's all for now. I'll let you know how things turn out in a week from tomorrow. And I'll have the camera back on Wednesday, so I'l try and get some pictures of it so that you can see what I'm trying to achieve.

Tchuss,

Kent


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## cwlodarczyk (Sep 18, 2005)

The peice looks nice but grapevine is practically guaranteed to rot underwater. Sorry.


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

Grapevine works, I had mine in a tank that was running for almost two years, with fish and shrimp, no problem.


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

I researched grapevine before I started to make sure that it was non-toxic and could stand up to being submersed. Toxins aren't an issue, but as far as rotting I found that peoples experiences are 50/50. From what I can gather there are two types of grapewood. One type is a solid light color, failrly soft and light, therefore it rots quickly. Then there is the other type that is two-toned, knobby, hard and very dense, which makes it fairly resistant to rotting. I'm not sure where the difference comes from, whether it's different species, different parts of the same plant, or older plants versus new plants, but I'm pretty sure that I have Type II.

I won't be putting Sructure 2.0 in the water today as I'm adding another small leg to the piece and I need to let the glue set up. I also picked up the two experimental pieces that I glued and the foamy glue was a lot stronger than when I pulled them out of the water. I'm not sure if it was from a longer cure time or if the glue was soften from soaking in water. I'm going to let it sit out for a week before I put it in water just to be sure.

Tchuss,

Kent


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## cwlodarczyk (Sep 18, 2005)

I hope you have type II then - this looks nice and I'd like to see it in the tank with some plants.


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

*Don't touch the wet glue!*

Just wanted to share something about Sumo Glue.

Don't get it on your hands.

I have a dirt, very fine sawdust, and Sumo Glue mixture stuck on the tips of most fingers and on my palms. It's a very thin flexible layer that has settled into the lines that make up ones finger and palm prints. I can't feel it, but it looks like I haven't washed my hands in a couple of weeks. I can't even get it off with a scrub brush. I even hit it with the pressure washer, at a distance of course. The bottle says, "For removal of cured product, use a sharp tool," but I think I'll pass on that for now. I have a very religious Catholic neighbor and I don't want her thinking I have Stigmata. [-o<

While researching how to get this stuff off, I found out that it uses water in the curing process as a binder for the polymer, kind of like super glue. So when I went to wash the uncured glue off of my hands with soap and _water_ dohOH!) it set up onto my skin. The good news about that is that the glue will not be weakened by keeping it under water.


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

I have had the handmade-decoration-siliconed-together-falls-apart experience and you have my sympathies! 

That wood looks similar to grapevine I have seen sold in aquarium stores in Texas some years ago. It does not look like soft wood that would rot quickly. 

Post pictures when you put it in the aquarium!


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You certainly get an A+ for telling a good story, and one that is informative too. Now I feel an urge to visit Capital Aquarium and pick up some pieces of "driftwood" to make a bigger piece too. ( I did hear that loud howl from back east, but I assumed it was the hurricane going thru there!)


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## Petfairy (Jul 17, 2006)

Great thread, i hope everything works out, keep us updated.


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

Thanks everyone. The wife gets home with the camera tonight, but it'll be a few days before I take any pictures of Structure 2.0. I want to sand down the dowels that are poking through and clean up some of the glue that's showing between some of the pieces. Maybe sometime this weekend.

Tschuss,

Kent


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

We were wondering what that noise was, down here in Melbourne 
I've tried the silicone on slate before & had the same problem.
The driftwood is very cool, & I love the dowel idea-it makes me wonder if you needed glue, cuz wouldn't the dowelwood swell?
I hope you keep us up to date!


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

Just a quick update to say I still haven't done a darn thing.
I will post pictures tonight, but I haven't sanded anything down so don't critique it just yet. There are spots where the dowels are still poking out and glue is still visible.


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

*Pics. Finally!*

Alright, I finally sat down, cleaned the piece up and snapped a few photos.
I'm having trouble deciding which side I would like to face forward, so I took shots from three different angles.

Angle 1









Angle 2









and Angle 3









Here are a couple close-ups of where the dowels come through. They probably would have looked better if I had tried to line up the grain. But I figure if it looks bad I'll just cover them up with moss.


















And here it is soaking under water. I've got rocks on top of it, so you can't really see it that well.









And now we just wait and hope it all holds together. ray: ray: ray:


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## wantabe23 (Apr 6, 2005)

A very good job! Way to go, another good DIY for others to try. I do a lot of my stuff DIY and by the end it seems for the amount of work and thought it would sometimes be worth just buying it. I often just dont have the money to just buy things though. So do you think it was worth it, I mean would you do it again, it seems that it took you a good month to figure it out through trial and error. The next one would no doubt be faster, but would you do it again? 
The final product looks really good and very original. 
Way to go!
After making somthing that looks good I often wonder how much I could sell it for, or even better how much would I be willing to pay for it as a consummer.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Very nice job! And, I don't think I have heard of assembling driftwood with dowels like that before. Now, the test will be seeing it in the aquarium. Don't forget to take some pictures of that.

I looked over the driftwood selection at one of my LFS last week, and the possibilities are endless for using this method.


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the encouragement.

I'd definately say that this was worth it (if it holds together). Not counting time it took for the glue to set, I'd say it took a total of 30 min. to an hour to assemble it. And as far as cost goes, I think I spent about $12 for the pieces of wood (of which I only used half), $5 for the glue (just barely used any of it), and about $4.50 for the dowels (used one and a half of the three that I bought). Probably the hardest thing of the process was placing the pieces so that it looks somewhat natural and getting them to stay that way while drilling them.

I haven't had time to check on it since I put it in the water. The few times I've glanced out the window at it I didn't see anything floating , so I'm assuming it's still intact.

On a side note: Pay no attention to the dead potted plants in the background of the pics. That was an experiment conducted by my wife and I on how long a house plant can sit outside in direct sunlight in Florida in July without water. The answer is less than two days.


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## Rattail (Aug 21, 2006)

Please do keep us updated on this. I battle to get decent driftwood in Cape Town, but we have LOADS of vineyards around!


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

Checked it this morning as I was changing the water out. It's definately less buoyant than it was when I initially put it in. The wood is really a nice dark color, too. Everything is still nice and solid, glue is still set to the wood. So far so good.


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## riverspryte (Sep 16, 2006)

*Adhesive Removal...*

If you haven't gotten the glue off yet, try finger nail polish remover. We use it in our scene shop to remove super glue from our fingers. It smells bad and kinda dries out your skin, but they will be adhesive free.


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

I tried nail polish remover, the glue just laughed at it and hit me in the face with the bottle. 
It shed off after a few days, so all's well.

I changed the water in the tub again yesterday and everything is still holding together nicely. There is a lot of dark green algae growing on it, so I think I'm going to tie some java moss to it and move it out of the direct sunlight. There are some small larvae in there also (not mosquito, though, I think they're caddis fly) that are either muching on the algae or the wood. Either way I don't want them in there so I'm going to net a minnow or two from my pond and drop them in to snack on the little blighters then throw them back in when they're gone. Maybe I'l drop a couple snails in, too, to keep the algae in check. It's going to be about a month before I can get the tank up and running, and I'll just post a link from here to the thread I start for it so that everyone can see Structure 2.0 in action. Otherwise I'll only update if there's trouble or if someone has a question.

Tschuss,

Kent


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## schaadrak (Aug 18, 2006)

I've taken it out of the waterfor good, now. It was starting to grow fuzz on it and something kept eating all of the minnows, snails, shrimp and java moss I tossed in with it to keep the fuzz from growing. It was either the ducks, the racoons or that wierd little kid that I found in my backyard picking up my dogs' poo and putting in a thermos (I didn't ask why because I didn't want to know, I also waited fifteen minutes until he picked most of it up before I ran him off, saved me from doing it)

It's been almost two months now, and its stiil just as sturdy as ever, so I figure it's not going to fall apart any time soon. It even stood up to sawing off a piece (it was way too big and really overpowering, took up half the tank). I guess I figure that this process is a success.

Here's a picture of it in the tank:









EDIT: Wow that's a crappy pic.


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## Skelley (Mar 4, 2006)

Looks great. I am glad I found this thread. I read in a couple posts about using silicone on driftwood that won't sink. After reading your story I definatly won't be trying it. I don't handle loss very well 

Keep us posted.


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