two glue questions

[pintihar]

The bottle of yellow glue I have states that it will not work in temperatures below 55 degrees. (Titebond II)

I just completed a project ( poplar storage chest ). I noticed that after letting the glue set for several hours, that the temperature in my shop is low: 50 degrees. I have moved the project indoors. Any comments or advice on the status of the glue job?

Also, I use gorilla glue from time to time depending on the requirements. I love the stuff, and would welcome comments on the pros/cons of this versus standard yellow ww glue.

Thanks, Phil

[John Crea]

Just give it more time to setup when it is colder

Other than being MORE expensive and dealing with the foam out, you can pretty much interchange the 2. Have the plastic money card handy if you go to all Gorilla glue, it will eat up the bank

John

[akomet]

As far as the status of the titebond glue job I would suggest you do a test on some scrap poplar pieces leaving them to set up over night in the 50 degree space. Next morning test the joint!

I have the same admiration for 'Gorilla Glue" although I have used other brands (cheaper) of polyurethane glues and have found them to be the same. Pros: Totally waterproof! longer set up time. If you have a large project with many parts this can be helpful. The glue seems to work better than yellow when the joints are a little sloppy. Of course you realize that I never relish sloppy joints fits but who is perfect and sometime it is unavoidable! Cons: Being careful not to use too much since it expands as it dries. Stains your skin, should wear gloves. "Excess" clean up needs paint thinner. AK

[Jim K]

Supposedly Gorilla Glue

works down to 40F tho' not optimally. I just finished reading a book about glueing and it mentioned that glues like Titebond form a chalky like substance in the 50s. I confirmed that this winter. Also the Titebond web site gives 55F as the chalk temperature.

It's possilbe you may have a glue problem - whatever, it probably won't be as strong as a warmer temp glueing job.

I'm thinking about temporarily "borrowing" the kitchen table for some panel glueups I'm about to do.

[Swingman]

Anytime it is 60F or lower, I either forego gluing critical components, or bring BOTH the glue and the parts into the kitchen a day in advance to acclimatize before gluing, then leave them there for the next 24 hours. One of the reasons I have a BIG kitchen with a 5' X 7', flat, granite island top ... its had about as many Bessey clamps on it as plates in the past year.

[pintihar]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. Here are some results from my testing: I glued two sets of joints from some scrap and let one set cure in the house at 68 degrees and the other in the shop at 49 degrees. I let both cure for 24+ hours and in the most _scientific_ method I could think of I broke the joints. It seemed to me that I needed similarly forceful leverage to break both sets of joints. My conclusion is that in future I will avoid low temperature gluing, but that the joints on this project are ok.

-Phil