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jav6454

macrumors Core
Original poster
Nov 14, 2007
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1 Geostationary Tower Plaza
Hey there guys, long story short, a Starbucks ceramic coffee tumbler of mine broke. Picture of it below:

1653523996582.jpeg


It’s an understatement to say it holds sentimental value and I would like to fix it. Any ideas?

PS - it also has some cracks where it didn’t separate.

Picture of the break:
1653524087838.jpeg
 
Do you intend to put liquids in it after a repair?

If not, then some superglue should work. Get the liquid kind, not the gel kind.

The last time I did this on ceramics, I dry-fitted everything together and held it in place with small pieces of blue painter's tape. This took some time to get things exactly right, much longer than the open time of the glue, if I'd been using it.

After everything was dry-fitted the way I wanted, I then dabbed tiny dots of superglue along the breaks on the inside. Surface tension draws some into the crack, and the rest you can clean off a day or so later. I'd do a few dots farther apart, let it set, then do more dots in between, double-checking the fit was still good. The early dots help hold it in place for the later dots.

I'd do the same dot-dabbing on the inside for any cracks that didn't break completely.

The way I determined whether the dry-fit was good or not was by running a finger over the break. Sometimes that would show a misfit much better than a visual check.

If it needs to be liquid-proof afterward, that's a lot more difficult, and I really don't have any good suggestions.
 
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I intend to use it for liquids still as the tumbler was not broken internally where coffee/water is held. Just the outside layer.

Luckily, gravity gold the tumbler together right now. So after reading your suggestion, I don't think I'll need tape.
 
Yes, superglue works really well.
A tip though- superglue actually uses water from the air as a catalyst- surprising I know- so on something porous it's a good idea to slightly wet the surface first.
If it's broken cleanly and there are no bits missing then it will probably hold water.
If there are any bits missing then the best solution is Superglue again but this time you squeeze some into the hole then whilst it's still wet spoon some sodium bicarbonate powder into it. Spoon on and then shake off the excess.
If you've never tried a Superglue/bicarbonate (baking soda) mixture it's brilliant! Sets hard like glass and is very strong.
You can find Youtube videos showing it if you aren't sure
It'll stay fairlysoft for a while and you can carve excess off with a knife. Repeat if there's not enough in the hole because you can build it up. But it sands down too- a Dremel would be best for you if it's inside
It won't be a perfect finish but it's better than anything else I know on crockery.
 
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Gorilla Glue.

The one that I used, was one of the strongest that they make in like a ~4 ounce squeeze container, but it was a bit pricey I think at around $6-ish.

I’ve been totally impressed with the durability and stronghold that substance has on almost everything that I needed a minor repair with. You literally can use it on anything and everything, but the key is to make sure cures long enough, where it has a solid contact point between the two surfaces.
 
I’ll look into all of these. As I stated earlier, the tumbler has two layers. The outer one that has the graphic and is the layer that broke and an inner that’s where the liquids are held. Luckily the inner is intact and fine.

Per Kintsugi, I don’t have the abilities to, but would very well have someone with fix it and I’ll gladly pay for that.
 
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