glue

[Nonny]

Sorry to bring up and old, old subject, but what do most of you use to glue up case goods or furniture? My personal favorite was Elmer's yellow carpenter glue and I keep a bottle of it in my present, tiny, workshop. I liked the strength, open time, reasonable moisture resistance and the fact that after clamping, a damp rag would clean up squeeze-out so the wood would still take stain. (It also was "scrapable" and could be popped off after drying.) There's probably little difference between Elmer's and Tightbond, but I just got used to buying Elmer's in the gallon bottle and refilling my little dispensers with it.

I've also used Gorilla glue here on some melamine board shelving and it's not too bad. I don't care for getting it off my fingers, though.

[Leon]

I have use many types of wood glue through the years and because all modern glues are pretty much going to do exactly what you want I make my choice as to the color the glue will be when cured.

Yellow glue if I don't care what the joint will look like or will be painting over.

"White" Gorilla glue, not polyurethane, for light colored woods as this glue dries clear.

TBIII for medium to darker woods, it dries to a dark brown color.

[Chris Friesen]

For basic shop stuff, sheet goods, and panel glue-ups, yellow glue. If consideration is made for expansion, panels almost never come apart, and if they do it's easy to clean up the glue line and glue it back together. I like the LV glue, but TBIII is good as well. Both of them will work at fairly low temperatures, important up here in the winter.

For joints on "good" pieces that might need to be repaired sometime down the line, liquid hide glue or epoxy. Both of them are repairable in ways that yellow glue isn't. Epoxy can also have a longer open time, and fills gaps structurally, which hardly any other glue does.

I'd like to try plastic resin glue, but in the winter I'd have to use a heat blanket to keep it warm enough to cure.

I've used Roo Glue on melamine. Worked reasonably well.

Chris

[Keith Nuttle]

If you use Gorilla Glue for biscuits joints is there a problem with the wood splitting from the expansion of the glue.

I am using 1 X 2 material.

[dpb]

Keith Nuttle wrote: ...

...

If you mean that foaming polyurethane crap, I'd not use it for anything of the sort.

It has some very minimal uses where need the water resistance but it's not worth beans for anything else. Tests show the polyurethanes aren't as strong as the yellow glues so the "gorilla" stuff is just marketing...add to the foaming the cleanup and all and there's just no place for it other than really specific uses...

Ask, and I'll tell ya' what I _really_ think about it... :)

$0.02, etc., etc., etc., ...

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[Lew Hodgett]

RE: Subject

TBII for typical wood working joints.

Epoxy for long open time joints or where gap filling is required.

Gorilla glue is the most overpriced under peckered product on the planet IMHO.

Totally worthless.

HTH

Lew

[Leon]

You need to be more specific as which Gorilla Glue you are talking about. However if you are talking about the polyurethane glue I seriousely doubt you would see a problem regardless if its application. If it expanded so much to split wood it seems to reason it would push joints apart also. I don't think it is going to happen. This is not an expanding foam sealer that you commonly see around windows and door jams.

However the white glue or regular wood glues would be a better choice. Biscuits work by expanding when they absorbe moisture from the glue. Typically the polyurethane glue uses moisture to cure, the glue itself probably will not cause a biscuit to properly expand.

[Leon]

Have you ever use the Gorilla "WHITE" glue? I find it pretty good and works exactly like the typical TB water based wood glue. IIRC cheaper than TBIII.

[Phisherman]

I've been buying Elmer's Woodworking glue for over 30 years--it does the job. A gallon lasts me about 10-20 months. Over the years I can now judge how much glue to apply with very little squeeze-out.

[Lew Hodgett]

No.

Haven't used TBIII either.

Around here, if TBII doesn't do the job, it's time for epoxy.

Lew

[scritch]

Titebond I or II until it gets too cold in the garage, or I need better water resistance, then Titebond III. Epoxy for gap- or hole-filling. Haven't tried hide glue yet, but I will, because it's reversible and repairable.

[Peter Huebner]

NB: I do not live in North America, so things may be different here.

First time I came across 'gorilla glue' it was that red foaming stuff sold in squeeze bottles. And yes, I agree: totally useless crap. The few times I used it the joints just popped after a period of time.

On the other hand, there's the white/clear 'gorilla grip' that is sold in cartidges suitable for caulking guns. This stuff does hardly foam so long as you don't use it on wet wood. And it holds very very well indeed. Seems like another animal entirely. Have to anticipate problems with creep during glue up - it can be as slippery as axle grease. Also it doesn't wash off the fingers like white glue and you have to use a spreader rather than a stiff brush - otherwise I'd use it a lot more than I do. But it's a superior product, and I prefer it for any kind of kitchen table/benchtop/chopping board that gets wet or even hot&wet regularly, since I have difficulty finding aerolite308 these days.

f.w.i.w. -P.

[Chris Friesen]

In general, liquid polyurethane glues (like Gorilla glue) want a very tight fit (it's not gap filling at all) and sufficient humidity.

On the plus side, it is water resistant, has a longer open time than PVA can glue different materials together, and doesn't need the mixing that epoxy does.

Chris

[Robatoy]

If one uses a fair bit of epoxy, the MixPac dispensers are pretty easy to use. A fresh tip, a whole variety of viscosities and set-up times. The smaller types are most economical for the lower quantity user. Larger systems cost a lot to start off with, but the price per ml goes down. The 50 ml guns are ideal.

[dpb]

Peter Huebner wrote: ...

The gorilla US web site doesn't seem to show that--I'd not realized they had even introduced a wood glue but in looking it appears it's a white PVA glue that meets ANSI Type I/II tests for water resistance (a la Titebond II and III) which not any other white PVA does afaik.

A quick search didn't find an online price for it except for another quick-set version of the same glue in 2-oz bottles that seemed pretty pricey and not particularly useful for general woodworking.

They didn't have a lot of technical details concerning it; in particular I looked but saw no mention of the chalk temperature for comparison.

But, as a PVA glue, it certainly would not have the dastardly foaming characteristics of the polyurethanes nor the cleanup hassles. Oh, it did have a pretty short clamp time w/ a 5-10 min open time.

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[Ed Pawlowski]

My favorite is Lee Valley 2002 GF. Flows nice, clean up easily. If I need a waterproof, I use TB III.

[Jim Hall]

Titebond III for most glue ups; Plastic resin glue for complicated glue-ups needing longer open time; Epoxy (West system 105/207) for bent laminations and veneer glue ups; Contact cement for attaching plastic laminate to substrate; Roo glue when smooth surfaces like melamine are involved.

[Peter Huebner]

The Gorilla Grip I was writing about is not a white/pva/aliphatic type glue, it's a polyurethane based one.

's sold as a construction glue, 2 hour cure, will stick to wood, treated timber, concrete,wallboard, mdf, formica, brick, polystyrene ... but not polyethylene or polypropylene.

Incidentally, the working temperature range given is impressive: -30 to

+100 Celsius.

I'd be surprised if it's not sold in the us/ca area, but maybe under a different product name - however: this stuff has the gorilla glue logo all over it, and it's infinitely superior to the red foamy 'gorilla glue'.

-P.

[Leon]

Snip

Any glue in a 2 oz configuration is going to be pricey. I have been buying Gorilla Glue White for a couple of years now.

Home Depot sells The White Gorilla Glue in 18oz containers for $5.97. I would call that pretty cheap.

[dpb]

Peter Huebner wrote: ...

...

Interesting -- there's no hint of such a product on the US Gorilla glue site--they have only four glue products listed -- the red foamy crap, an epoxy, a cyano-superglue and the aforementioned white pva wood glue.

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