Casein wood glue is a type of adhesive made from milk protein. It is glue is known to be very strong over a long period of time and it is resistant to water. This casein wood glue has a longer drying time (about 2 – 4 hours). It was used extensively in manufacturing of woodworking, furniture making and even to assemble early wooden aircraft (during WW2).
You can make it easily and in lesser time. The process of creating the case in wood glue is nearly identical to that of making cheese and can easily do it at your home. In some cases, you must use nail gun to bond the wood pieces together in home remodeling projects. You can read the best rated framing nailer for more information here.
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Be Safe
Use the chemicals according to the manufactures’ recommendations, and do it with any other precautions that you can find. Use gloves and eye goggles is much better to keep you safe.Avoid contact with burns and spills, and reactions with incompatible objects. And don’t mix chemicals unless you are well aware of the result before doing it. There will be some chemical mixes can burst into flame or explode or boil. Do not consume chemicals in case they are poisonous and prepare your workspace appropriately. It will have an assistant. Use protective clothing and well known to contact the poisons center for advice in emergency cases.
What is Casein?
First of all we need to know more about it. Casein is a protein and sometimes called Caseinogen. It is fairly hydrophobic which means that it is not water soluble and that’s a nice property for wood glue. You will find it in about 80% of the proteins in milk. It is a salt of the element calcium, which incidentally is a metal. So, you should see how it is likely to be pretty tough stuff.
Is it be used more today?
Yes of course, you can manufacture the casein glue much less than the cost of modern equivalents. Formaldehyde is nasty chemical, but it is simple casein glue without lime or fungicide is not poisonous. Concentrated lime can burn skin, so it could be better to use only that with extreme caution.
Which milk is best to make it?
Indeed, milk can be used to make glue, and we have also found out which glue will give the strongest glue. These milks results will be useful as glue can then be made from an ordinary everyday household product.
Ingredients
- Skim milk powder
- Water
- White vinegar
- Baking soda
- Dilute skim milk powder as per packet instructions to make 100mL. Put into a pan. Add 15% vinegar (15 mL for 100 mL of liquid). The vinegar is 5% acetic acid.
- Gently heat and stir. As soon as it curdles, remove it from the heat. If you heat too much it will ruin the glue.
- Pour liquid and curds through a paper filter. You can use a funnel and a paper towel
- Wash the casein to remove traces of vinegar.
- Add 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda to the curds and carefully stir with a small flat stick. Add water one drop at a time while stirring, until you reach a typical glue-like texture.
You want to create a casein powder. Then use it with various formulae, then after point 4. Above press the casein in a paper towel to remove most of the water and let it dry hard. Then you can reduce the mixture to a powder. Do not mix the alkali to it before this stage because over time the powder will lose its properties of stickiness.
The quality of the glue depends on low fat and acid content. So it could be better to start with skimmed milk and why you wash the vinegar away.