How best to glue an object into a mug?
October 27, 2015 6:02 AM   Subscribe

I want to superglue a toy inside a mug - what glue should I use??

I'd love to make something like this Peek-a-Boo Mug for my niece. What would be the best way to attach it to the bottom of the cup?

I assume that the mug will be put in the dishwasher, plus it's going to come in contact with drinks, so I would want something both strong and non-toxic and resistant to both water and heat. It will be of sufficient size so in case it did happen to unglue, it wouldn't be a choking hazard.

Is there a good brand for this? Is there any health issue with using a plastic toy rather than a ceramic one?

Thanks!
posted by amicamentis to Food & Drink (9 answers total)
 
This is not a good idea. Anything that will affix the toy to the bottom of the mug is going to leach things into the liquid that you will not want to drink. Add to that a plastic toy, and you'll have more leaching of assorted chemicals.

I am not a person who worries about BPA in can linings or anything, and I still wouldn't drink out of this mug. Better to find a ceramic one that's pre-made than to roll your own here.
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:13 AM on October 27, 2015 [6 favorites]


My mother, a potter who is slightly paranoid about food safety, uses food-grade epoxy to repair/assemble broken ceramics. The stuff I linked to is fairly expensive, and it's not necessarily the same brand she uses, but it's the same thing. If you're shopping around for cheaper "food grade epoxy" make sure you're looking at adhesives and not coatings, as it's used for both (in different formulations).
posted by pullayup at 6:13 AM on October 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


Even if you use a food safe epoxy, the toy, whether plastic or ceramic, will almost certainly not be food safe. Maybe go to a ceramics artist and have something custom made that you know is safe. Otherwise, your gift is highly likely to be toxic to the kid. Toys are not made to be used like this and the repeated high heat of the dishwasher will accelerate leaching.
posted by quince at 6:23 AM on October 27, 2015 [4 favorites]


Yes this is a bad idea for the reasons above.

There are a whole host of these mugs available ready made, though. If you give us an idea of what exactly you're after, some of us really like googling and may be able to find just the thing.
posted by phunniemee at 6:31 AM on October 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I've only seen peekaboo mugs sold that are all one unit, not ones assembled after the fact. I imagine the concerns raised above of durability are why. Adhering objects to one another in harsh environments like a dishwasher, or even hot chocolate, while maintaining food safety, is a challenging objective. Having those two objects be of different thermal properties (plastic vs ceramic), and having one of them pre-coated with a glaze that is designed to make it harder for things to stick to them complicates the problem. Not to mention that different plastic types will dissolve when in contact with certain epoxies.

In the spirit of your thoughtful gift, perhaps you could have a potter custom make an appropriate peekaboo mug for your niece? It looks like there are a couple folks who have done them.
posted by enfa at 6:33 AM on October 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Awesome comments so far - thanks for the info! Yeah, I'm definitely hearing the "this is not a great idea" for a food or drink item. I'll definitely look into the custom made mug or else make a different kind of gift.
posted by amicamentis at 6:42 AM on October 27, 2015


What about an ale mug that has a clear bottom? I haven't snoped it, but weren't those common around seaports? Something to do with signing bonuses for crews.

Anyway, get one, make a false bottom to cover it, and then put glitter or apicture OUTSIDE on the clear bottom, then seal with the obscuring lid over that so you can only see the prize when you've emptied the cup.
posted by tilde at 7:36 AM on October 27, 2015


To stack on with the buzzcrushing here -- if the glue failed, it could be a quick choking hazard. But there are loads of good personalized mug options out there that didn't exist not so many years ago -- you can put your own drawing or photo on a mug, you can go to one of those 'you paint our pottery, we glaze and fire it' places...

If you had a really specific design in mind, you could ask a local pottery studio if anybody might take a custom order?

It used to be easy to find plastic mugs with a top that screwed off so you could slip a bit of paper coloured by you in it and screw the top back on -- I have a travel coffee mug with this feature -- but my Google-fu is weak for it, but they're still out there.
posted by kmennie at 8:33 AM on October 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


What about casting the toy inside food-grade silicone? Such as this. If the toy is completely embedded, then chemical leaching shouldn't be a problem. You could use the mug itself as a mold for the silicone, and the cast silicone with embedded toy would become a removable "peekaboo insert" for the bottom of the mug. Then it could be removed and washed separately from the mug. I haven't tried anything like this myself, but it seems like it would be safe and easy; hopefully other commenters can chime in if there's an obvious problem.
posted by biogeo at 9:43 AM on October 27, 2015


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