The recent and ongoing thread about Mortise and tenon joints and possible benefits (or not) of pinning the them, got me to thinking about the service lifetime of PVA glues.
As far as I can remember, I have never seen the lifetime mentioned in any literature or any where else, I posed the question to Franklin, here is their reply.
"The expected service life of the Titebond II is not, at this point, well defined as these types of adhesives have only been in existence since the late 1940's. The service life of Titebond II, used in a well designed joint, is expected to last as long as the wood used to construct the project.
If you have any questions, please give me a call at 800-347-4583
Bob Behnke Sr. Technical Specialist Franklin International
2020 Bruck Street Columbus, OH 43207"I know from doing piano work that wood begins to lose its elasticity after about 80 years and a lot of pianos of that age will begin to be unable to maintain a tune for long at the time or be unable to be brought into tune at all, depending on the original quality of the piano and conditions under which it was kept. I know there are exceptions but they are few and far between.
This is not the type of failure that would ever be noticable in an ordinary piece of furniture.
I try to build things that could reasonably be expected to last 150 years and PVA seems to easily fit in that time frame.
I still like wedged and/or pinned joints, just in case.
basilisk