For those of you who didn’t follow closely, 1985’s film classic, “Back to the Future” included characters named Otis Peabody and a son Sherman, as a tribute to cartoon hero Mr. Peabody who appeared in the late 1950’s animated series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show.
The WABAC machine was a central element of the “Peabody’s Improbable History” cartoon segment. The machine was invented by Mr. Peabody, a genius, polymath, and bow tie-wearing beagle, as a birthday gift for his adopted pet boy, Sherman.
Today the WABAC machine takes us back to my days as owner of M & W Building Supply in the 1980’s. Jim Betonte (present day owner of M & W) had a friend in Central Oregon who needed some roof steel. Jim’s friend happened to either then, or in the recent past, work for The 3M Company (former Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company).
The 3M Company happens to manufacture over 55,000 products and one field 3M knows about is adhesives.
Although Jim and I had never heard of such a thing, his friend convinced Jim he could apply the steel to the roof of his building using nothing but 3M glue. True to his word, he made it happen and to my knowledge the roofing is still intact 30 years later. Apparently the client found only one challenge. In order to make sure the roofing would adequately bond, he placed sandbags on the roof to apply pressure until the glue cured. The steep slope of his roof added to the interest level as he had to keep them from sliding off!
March 8, 2016 New Scientist magazine (www.newscientist.com) published in their New Urbanist column written by Geoff Manaugh:
“Glue is the future of architecture. At least that’s how architect Greg Lynn sees it. And he’s not alone. “Mechanical assembly is already waning in many industries,” Lynn says. “An airplane now is glued together. A car now is glued together. Even a lot of appliances are being glued together.” So why not skyscrapers?”
Glued on steel and roofing would certainly make for a very “clean” application and would take away the need for through screws used to attach many panel profiles. The challenge will be to solve condensation issues on the underside of roof panels, as the sheets of steel are probably best applied to either a solid substrate (plywood or oriented strand board) or wood purlins.
