Do I need to glue everything?

[David Todtman]

My friend and I are building two glider rockers (deck chairs). (We got an old broken down version from a yard sale and are using this as a model.) These chairs will be out in the weather for spring, summer, and fall in southern British Columbia and stored under cover during the winter seasons.

The back and seats are of slats that are dowel pegged into side rails. (About 12 slats per each back and seat assembly.) I think it may be a bit of a scramble to glue the back and seat assembly--getting everything all lined up properly and clamped down before the glue begins to set. I reckon we can do it but the task would be less fretful if we did not use glue on the slats in the middle/centre of the assembly.

Can we do without glue on a portion of the slats? I think the final product might be overall stiffer if we glued everything and that would be an advantage with respect to how long the chairs last.

TIA, David Todtman

[David]

Use one of the slow setting glues, David. You don't need to use regular Titebond, you know!

Dave

David Todtman wrote:

[Hax Planks]

I'm trying to picture what is holding the chairs together if you don't glue those slats. I assume there are a few other principal stringers holding it together. I think it would be unwise to leave the seat slats unglued, but it probably isn't as critical with the back slats. Gluing all of them would certainly increase stiffness and durability. You will have to use a waterproof glue whatever you do. If you can find some 24 hour epoxy, that would be waterproof and have plenty of open time.

[Patriarch]

David wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Titebond3 has a longer 'open time', and deals well with water resistance. So does a polyurethane glue, like Gorrilla Glue.

Patriarch

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I had a bunch of slats to glue up on a bench. I used a System Three T-88 epoxy. It had a 30 minute open time, is wateproof, and strong. It is used for aircraft and boats.

I'm su re other brands will suite your needs also.

[David Todtman]

Thank you each very much for the replies. They all get glued. I may very well go with epoxy.

Thank, David Todtman

[Ozoned]

20 minute working time

8)

[David]

yeah, but I think TB3 might still be too slow for a complicated glue-up. Have you used for such projects?

Dave

Patriarch wrote:

[Patriarch]

David wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Most of my (more) complex projects haven't needed water resistance, and so I use Titebond Extend, a slower version of Original Titebond.

I've only used TB3 on some Shaker-inspired outdoor benches, done im Western Red Cedar, with a group of Boy Scouts. It worked well, but that's hardly a complex glueup. (Is it fair to call it a 'screw-up', if there are substantial numbers of McFeeley's finest included?)

My designs & projects are planned to work around my (many) limitations. Primarily time, attention span, work space, and increasingly, physical stamina. I cannot imagine a scenario in which a multi-spindle glueup wouldn't turn out badly for me. I do mortise & tenon work in as many stages as is feasible.

Blue tape is good, as is saran-type packing 'twine'.

Do what you can. Beyond that, improvise.

Patriarch

[David Todtman]

Yeah. We'll do a dry fit and make sure we have the glue up procedure in place. But I think we'll need that 20 minute plus open time. The weather here is cool--southern Vancouver Island--so the epoxy will cooperate. I also like the epoxy idea because it's 'slippy' and will make the gluing fit-up a little easier. I've used a lot of epoxy in the past in boat work so I know a little more than the basics of that stuff.

We made a jig and then drilled the dowel peg holes in the back uprights. They fit up perfectly (yeah!) with just dowel pegs. So long as we can continue that level of precision, I think we will have an okay time of the glue up.

Thanks all again, David Todtman