Trib tested: Mighty Putty

Tag : brass wood screw

The first thing that hit me about Mighty Putty -- right before thesulphuric, rotten-egg smell -- was the sheer brilliance of itsdispensing system. Because the resin and hardener are wrapped onearound the other, the user needs only to slice off the exact amountrequired for the repair, without worrying about finding the rightmix. There's virtually no waste or mess -- not the case with otherepoxies such as Bondo or J-B Weld. And don't worry: The smell goesaway after the first minute or so. As an adhesive, Mighty Puttycreated a pretty good bond with wood, cement and plastic --although not quite as good as wood glue, Krazy Glue or specialtycement glues, respectively. A hose repair worked impressively forabout 10 minutes, then gave way to the water pressure in a violentburst. The best use for Mighty Putty is as a filler. It filled adecent-size hole in a piece of wood, creating a patch that wasstronger than the wood itself. And it does very well with sanding,drilling and holding screws. I'd recommend it as a light- tomedium-duty adhesive, because of its ease of use and its adequatebonding with a wide range of materials. But I'm a little skepticalof some of the repairs shown in the infomercial.
Rebecca Killian
This smelly substance that seems to turn into really old and toughchewing gum to do its tricks does indeed work. We compared thesmell with burning rubber tires, so if you can get past the nastysmell, Mighty Putty can fix lots of things. While the odor isn'tpleasant, it doesn't permeate a room. Activate the green and whiteputty together with your fingers and let the fixing begin. Mynon-union assistant was my 12-year-old daughter. Our first fix: awooden chair with a rung that needed to be reinforced back into itsslot. One minute later, the job was complete. The next day, thelegs on the chair were rock hard. Next stop, the bathroom, where afancy antique brass toilet-tissue holder refused to stay putbecause the inner screw apparently was stripped. We removed thescrew and attached some putty around the bolt holder and -- voila-- Mr. Whipple would have been proud to hang his Charmin on aholder that no longer wobbled. A good feature is that you don'thave to use the entire tube at once. You just twist off or cut theamount you need for your project. The rest of the putty will waitfor you to come up with those repair jobs where glue isn't enough,but a professional contractor isn't needed. Every home's tooldrawer should have a tube of Mighty Putty.