best glue for new chair joints?

[david blumberg]

Hi,

I am building 4 mission style high chairs in red oak for the kitchen counter. There are about 50 mortise and tenon joints in each one, counting the spindles.

I have seen so many wobbly chairs in my life I am wondering if there is a preferred glue to use in the joints. I use Titebond 2 as a rule, and dont care for the foaming Gorilla glues, but would the expansion characteristics of those be what I need?

thanks,

david

[Max Mahanke]

Gorilla glue is a bad idea because of clean-up. Titebond 2 will provide adequate strength if the joints are milled properly (snug but not real tight dry-fit) but you might consider Titebond III. Its more expensive and you don't need the water-proof property but is gives you a longer open time (about 15 vrs 5 minutes if I remember correctly.) Tiebond also makes a slow-set but in my experience its not as readily available as the Type III.

[Chris Friesen]

The foam from expanded poly glue has essentially zero strength. Poly glue requires very tight-fitting joints to work properly.

You may want to consider over-drying the pieces with tenons, so that when they come back up to proper moisture level they swell and lock themselves into place.

Given that the chair will eventually need repairing, you might consider a glue that is reversible. Hide glue, or plain white/yellow glue (the non-waterproof kind) might make sense.

Chris

[Phisherman]

Yellow carpenter's glue, any popular brand, will do. Make sure all your tenons fit snugly in the mortises, ie, do a dry fit before the actual glue-up procedure. Wobbly chairs wobble mainly because they were not made properly or they were put through abuse.

[Woodhead]

If you are using thru-tenons you might consider wedges to ensure they never loosen. Titebond and wedged tenons are incredibly strong joints. Cut a saw kerf (thin) 2/3rds of way through the tenon. Do your glue-up, force glue into kerf and drive a tight fitted wedge into the kerf. Contrasting wood for the wedge is a nice touch. My chair teacher says it will never loosen. Believe him.

Jim

[edswoods.1]

I've found a very good epoxy glue that can be ordered from Clearkote Corp. [phone]. You can get it in quarts, one can resin and one can hardener. One advantage to using it is that it doesn't require much clamping pressure to bond, and the bonding strength is comparable to clamped aliphatic resin glue. You just mix two gobs of roughly the same size. Working time is from 20 minutes to 45 minutes depending on temperature.