Gluing miter joints with PU?

[Toller]

A customer wants a lightly built TV stand, made of butternut with miter joints. I tried to get her to let me use dovetails, but she doesn't like them. I am very concerned about the strength of this unit. I intend to use biscuits on the joints, but still...

I read that PU gives much stronger miter joints than yellow glue because of the end grain. Anyone have experience that confirm or refute that?

My experiences with PU have been messy. If I put masking tape on both sides, will the overflow peel off with the tape, or will it just work under the tape? Any advice on this would be appreciated.

[RicodJour]

A biscuited miter joint should be plenty strong for a lightly built stand (hopefully the TV and not just the stand is light).

The yellow glue gets absorbed into the endgrain too quickly. Some people brush yellow glue on the endgrain and let it soak in before doing the final glue-up. The polyurethane glue is thicker than the yellow glue so it doesn't get absorbed as much, then expands and blocks off the endgrain so the glue stays put. At this point I've pretty much switched over to polyurethane glue for everything except where I need long open time.

The stuff is messy, but if you tape, scrape and sand it'll clean up just fine. Burhish the tape down so the glue won't seep under. Wipe the completed joints down with alcohol or mineral spirits before you attempt to finish the piece to make sure you removed all of the excess. Post some pictures. Send $5 to the first name on the list. Have fun.

R

[jbobst4]

Any one-to-one slow cure epoxy will outperform PU adhesives. It soaks into the end grain and that just makes it so much stringer. Acetone is a typical easy cleanup solvent many of us keep around. As a practical matter, I have epoxy end bonded red oak trim scrap into useable lengths to finish up a job without another trip to Menards. Resulting pieces stained and varnished fine with the seam almost invisible (sharp saw blade, ya know). One kind of adhesive in the shop just isn't enough. Titebond, Gorilla Glue, whatever, all have advantages and disadvantages. Use them where they work the best.

Joe

[charlie b]

snip

Lee Valley carries a product called Waxalit (or Waxilit). Consistency of vasoline - apply where you don't want glue to stick. Peel glue squeeze out then remove waxalit with alcohol on a Q-tip. Michael Fortune uses it to solve glue squeeze out clean up on Windsor chairs. Comes in small tube or can.

This stuff was originally developed to reduce friction on production joiners, planers and shapers. For those applications they sell this stuff in 55 gallon drums.

charlie b

[James]

I've been using West System Epoxy on our boats for quit a while. It's very good stuff and since I'm about out of it I'm switching to System Three Epoxy. The west System requires acetone for clean up. System Three can be cleaned up with white vinager or rubbing alcohol which is much cheaper than acetone. System Three is availble locally here at Woodcrafter's were as West System has to be shipped in making it more expensive. Jim