glue question for wet wood

Sep 19, 2003 9 Replies

I've been asked to build a wood gate for one of my builders out of western red cedar. The wood is green with alot of moisture content. Allowing it to dry isn't an option due to time constraints. I was wondering what sort of glue would be best to use. I plan to peg the tendons to help keep it together as the wood dries and shrinks.


A good urethane glue might do the trick.

-- Regards,

Dean Bielanowski Editor, Online Tool Reviews

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If the wood is green enough that your description of it as "wet" is accurate, then I believe you misunderstand the situation. *Not* allowing it to dry isn't an option due to time constraints. If you think you don't have the time to do it right, you *definitely* don't have the time to do it *over*.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Gorilla glue or other polyurethane type will work.

Don't glue it, peg it. If it shrinks as it dries, it'll break whatever glue you use.

the only thing that works on wet wood is a good construction adhesive. but in this case it sure does not sound like it will work at all.

Greetings,

Given you have green wood and mortise and tenon joints, you should consider draw bored mortise and tenon joints. See this URL for more information:

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I've been asked to build a wood gate for one of my builders out of western

well it may stick but it does not have the flex to handle shrinking wood like wet wood. not much does.

thanks for your imput. To clarify, the "green" cedar I'm using is "green" by industry standards...it's not fresh cut and it's all that's availible. Currently the boards are at 25% moisture content. One of the characteristics of cedar is that it's very stable with little dimensional change during drying. I've built many projects using mechanical fasteners that have withstood the test of time using this "green" wood. A side note, cedar contains chemicals that's very corrosive to fasteners so a coated or galvanized fastener is a must. The gate I'm building will be held together by pegged mortise and tendon joints. The tendons will be undercut just enough to allow shrinkage of the mortise. I'll post a pic after it's finished. Once again thanks for your imput. Mel

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