This post is sort of related to the one about carpenters glue solvent. I made a mistake gluing two pieces of cherry with yellow glue. My first instinct is to use water to soften the glue but I wonder if I will wreck the wood doing that.
What is your advice?
TIA.
Dick Snyder
I should have mentioned that a 3/4" piece of cherry is glued to a second piece of cherry so I have to loosen the glue in a 3/4" by 26" joint.
------------------------- Time for a 1500 watt heat gun and a putty knife.
Lew
If possible, for instance if this is a panel glue-up, just rip along the glue line and compensate for the loss of kerf thickness somewhere. In my own experience, trying to separate 2 pieces glued with yellow glue is a crap shoot. Whether you try softening the glue with water or some other solvent, there is still a good possibility that wood on either side will crack before the glueline separates. If you can just rip or saw the glueline, you will be in controll of what happens, with other methods there's no way to be certain what will happen.
I don't think it would ruin the wood. You'd probably have to let it air dry for quite a while. If you can submerge it steam, that may work.
I have a piece of cherry 26" long edge glued at a 90 degree angle (actually it is 85 degrees which is the problem!). I can't really rip the joint without ruining both pieces of wood. I will glue up a test sample and try a heat gun per Lew's suggestion to see what happens to the cherry.
I vote for the heat gun, also. Just don't burn your wood, which can eassilly happen if you don't watch carefully.
Sonny
That's what she said.
I'll Jump in with Larry on this. If you have extra width to work with, rip through the glue joint and re-do it. I recently restored an antique elm claw -foot table that had several cracks in the glue joints (likely animal glue) in the top. After some careful measuring and head scratching I ended up ripping through the joints and re-glued them. In this case, I had to compensate for width with the edge trim but it worked quite well. If width is an issue, you might be able to use a thin-kerf blade.
RonB
Try white vinegar
Which brand/formulation? Titebond I will loosen with heat. And vinegar will loosen it as well.
But not Titebond II.
Not sure about other kinds of PVA glue. If they are general purpose, heat or vinegar should do the trick.
-------------------------- Interesting, have never used TBI, but have used lots of TBII.
Have always been able to loosen TBII with a heat gun.
It's been a while, but when I asked tech support in Columbus, they recommended heat.
Lew
Lew
I used Titebond I.
All the Titebond glues are PVA types, and PVA softens at about boiling-water heat (or maybe less). I've used hot water with vinegar and it worked, but maybe it was mainly the heat.
I glued up two pieces of cherry at 90 degree angles (like my project error). I tried a mix of warm water and vinegar on sample 1 and a heat gun on sample
I held the head of the heat gun fairly close to the wood which is what probably burned it. Had I held it further away or used less heat, I wonder if I would have broken the bond (in a reasonable amount of time) and also not burned the wood. I will make up another sample and try the heat gun but first I wanted to get some advice.
TIA.
Dick Snyder
------------------------------------ Patience is a virtue when working with a heat gun.
Keep the gun 4"-6" away from wood, play it back and forth continuously over a 10"-12" glue seam until the glue softens someplace along the seam, then insert the edge of a flexible putty knife.
Keep the putty knife moving since the metal blade is a good conductor of heat.
When an edge softens, move down the joint another 3"-6" and continue.
BTW, clamp one side of the glue joint with some kind of vice so that it remains in one place while you apply pressure with the putty knife.
Budget at least an hour for this job.
Be PATIENT.
Lack of patience is your worst enemy for this task.
Have fun.
Lew
"Lew Hodgett" wrote
Yep. Wood is a pretty good insulator. It takes a while for the heat to get to the glue.
: "Lew Hodgett" wrote
:> ------------------------------------ :> Patience is a virtue when working with a heat gun. :>
:> Keep the gun 4"-6" away from wood, play it back and forth continuously :> over a 10"-12" glue seam until the glue softens someplace along the seam, :> then insert the edge of a flexible putty knife. :>
:> Keep the putty knife moving since the metal blade is a good conductor of :> heat. :>
:> When an edge softens, move down the joint another 3"-6" and continue. :>
:> BTW, clamp one side of the glue joint with some kind of vice so that it :> remains in one place while you apply pressure with the putty knife. :>
:> Budget at least an hour for this job. :>
:> Be PATIENT. :>
:> Lack of patience is your worst enemy for this task.
: Yep. Wood is a pretty good insulator. It takes a while for the heat to get : to the glue. : -- : Jim in NC
I wonder if it would be more effective to place the putty knife carfully right at the joint, then heat the metal up a lot. Wouldn't this localize the heat right on the glue line?
-- Andy Barss
------------------------------------- You have to be very careful and not let the knife get too hot or it can burn the wood.
Again, PATIENCE is a virtue.
Lew
Ayup. It's rated at a whopping R-1, Morgy.
-- To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. -- J. K. Rowling
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