I recently came into a bunch of 4/4 rough maple and would like to laminate some of it into thicker stock for legs. I'm planning on either painting or ebonizing them, so I'm not so worried about grain or color match as I am about the glue lines becoming visible over time. (Is this called "cold creep"?) I've seen where even T3 develps this and I'd like to avoid it if possible. Can anyone recommend a glue that would minimize this issue?
Thanks.
JP
I have some experience laminating stock and most of the problems I have seen are related to poor fit and inadequate clamping pressure.
Titebond recommends 175 to 250 psi clamping pressure for T2, (on hard hardwoods) for a 30 inch table leg 4 inches wide this works out to a minimum of 21,000 pounds, think very heavy clamping frames and hydraulic jacks.
It sounds extreme but it will give you permanent thin glue joints.
basilisk
IME, and depending upon the cut (plain sawn, quarter sawn, etc), you will generally not have a problem with creep when laminating face to face to gain thickness for things like table legs.
The "glue line creep" problem seems more prevalent when gluing up panels, edge to edge, and can also be affected in magnitude by the particular cut of the wood used to do the "laminating".
IME, quarter sawn wood will often move more in thickness than it does in width, resulting in the creep becoming more obvious with changes in RH, particularly on edge to edge panel glue-ups.
I've laminated/glued up quite a bit of stock for table legs, face grain to face grain, and have yet to have a problem with glue line creep.
As alway, YMMV ... just my experience.
Yes you may get some glue creep over time. Just be sure to use a dye as part of your ebonizing process and it should colorize the glue enough so if any creeps it will still be the right color.
In fact, I would assume you could dye the glue prior to using it without adverse effects. Just a drop or two of transtint. But I am not
100% sure this wouldn't screw up the glue but might be worth test> I recently came into a bunch of 4/4 rough maple and would like to
Eleminate the glue lines in the expected areas. Glue up your panels and then cut your leg blanks out with a 45 degree bevel. Basically this puts the glue line on the corner of the leg instead of in the middle. I can provide a drawing of the concept if you like.
When I was a young man urea formaldehyde glues were used. Cascamite was the brand. A white powder mixed with water which goes off to a rock hard, brittle, waterproof, gap filling, chisel blunting resin. Never a glue line.
The bottom line is that a PVA glue doesn't set hard, so any subsequent stress will expose a glue line, especially in a dark finish. It doesn't sand away to powder either so sometimes you get a glue line anyway. I have been using polyurethane for some years now scarfing new wood onto old, planing and painting and so far the results are excellent, no glue line (as long as I got the joint close).
Tim W
Obvious choice is an oldie but a goodie, Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue. Whatever else one may say about it, it's _not_ going to creep.
Stuff used to be in any hardware store in small cans, now the smallest you can get is a pound and it's hard to find. If all else fails Amazon has it.
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