I was clamping some tenons and wiped away the excess glue with a dry rag. I worry a little about how the thin residue of glue might affect the finish. But I also read some time ago not to use a wet rag because it causes problems with raising the grain.
What's the definitive choice? To wet or not to wet?
Thanks,
s
The _definitive_ choice is use less glue so eliminate squeeze out... :)
The alternative is to finish or wax surface first so glue doesn't soak into wood fibers.
As for cleanup when neither of above applies (my usual scenario by the way) I use damp, not wet nor dry...
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Or to tape off the joint before assembly.
R
I use the tape method too and it works well. Just remember, if you're not careful with the tape you'll either end up with glue you will have to sand or scrape off or you'll end up with some tape caught in the joint.
Be careful out there.
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1) Use less glue.2) Apply glue with a plumber's acid brush with the bristles trimmed back to about 1/2".
3) Tape joints with blue painter's tape. Do not use cream colored masking tape.4) Rinse away excess glie with a water soaked plumber's acid brush, then wipe dry. Repeat as required.
Mastering 1 & 2 above eliminates the need for 3 & 4.
Lew
And you can usually get the brushes in bundles of 20 or so quite cheaply. Good for a bunch of small brush tasks. Used nothing but for gluing for the past 20 years or so.
All good info. Thanks everyone.
s
If the glue is in the form of squeeze-out like a blob that is not really smeared onto the wood surface, wait til it has dried slightly and skinned over, then scrape it off. If it has smeared onto the wood, in my experience a WET rag must be used to remove it all. Not just a damp rag, but a WET rag, though not sopping wet. Otherwise there will be residual glue that will cause finishing problems. If the grain raises from the moisture, well, you'll just have to sand.
I let it start to set on a flat surface and use a scraper. If two pieces are joined 90 degrees, take a plastic soda straw and cut the end off on a diagonal. Now use the point to scrape away the wet glue. Wipe the straw or snip shorter as needed.
I've been doing this for about 30 years now and for the first 20 or so hade very good luck with using an almost dripping wet paper towel, even on red oak. I did however rewipe several times with a progressively dryer paper towel. Worked great and I never had the supposed problem of glue thinning out and getting into the pores of the wood. Because I 95% of the time sand a project after assembly raised grain was a non issue. Today I seem to have mastered the proper amount of glue as I very seldom have to deal with squeeze out at all. Swingman and I build lots of kitchen cabinets and I don't recall us having to wipe squeeze out.
Totally agree and might I add, use or white TB or white Gorilla glue on lighter woods, TB III on medium colored brown woods, and dark tint glue on dark woods. I try to never use yellow glue.
Wait for the glue to set for an hour and then scrape it off with a chisel.
D) ALL of the above.
Is this a common practice? The only time I've even seen a glue line is when the glued pieces weren't jointed properly.
Maybe I'm clamping too tight and staving the joint, but I've never had any weakness in the joints.
I'm curious about what others think on this issue.
It is for me. While I usually do not have a problem with excess glue I really do not try to remove or worry about some slight squeeze out in hard to get are areas. Inside cabinets web frames, bottoms of boxes, inside through DT joints and box joints, etc. In those cases I use the color that matches the best.
IMHO there are times that certain glue squeeze out is not worth removing but going with a color to help hide any that may appear works out well.
If you have entirely coated the surfaces with glue you can clamp to you hearts content, there will be no glue starvation. 30 years ago I clamped our oak dresser top so tightly that the bar clamps left very noticable impressions on the edges. I trimmed the edges to clean that up. The dresser looks as good today and has held up exceptionally well.
----------------------------------------- With the availability of high quality laminating epoxy which BTW, cures clear and bridges gaps adding strength in the process, why would anybody use overpriced, under peckered Gorilla glue?
Lew
"Cuz it has a cute monkey on the label?
Notice I said "white" Gorilla glue. That glue is relatively inexpensive and i have had no issues with it. IIRC about $4~$5 for a 16 oz container.
It _is_ awesome glue. but one bitch to work with..... sticky foamy bitch to work with....(with which to work?) So ifn when you're going through all the hassle, why NOT epoxy? I mended a couple of 1 x 6 cedar planks in a distant neighbour's fence, as a temporary measure, 5 years ago? Still there. Still full strength. HE claims a domestic disturbance. *I* claim he should have just paid that Michigan hooker beFORE she drove her Cavalier through that fence...... yup, Cavalier...high class.
On 8/12/10 5:15 PM, Robatoy wrote: *I* claim he should have
So much for buy American. :-)
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