What sort of glue do you use?

[NewLou]

Gidday Everyone

Really interested in the present school of thought on what glue to use for woodwork these days. As with many things theres often trends and flavours of the month in regards to workshop mainstays in the glue up department.

After a lot of reading and researching I decided to use a glue called:

Garrett Wade 202GF mainly for its gap filling ability and strength. What are the rest of you fellas doing when it comes to glue?????

WHat glue do you use?

Regards LOu

[silentC]

Yellow aliphatic resin for most things. Urea Formaldehyde for gap filling and longer working time.

[Wood Borer]

I've been trying out the Selley's exterior crosslinked PVA. Seems OK so far but time will tell if it creeps.

[ribot]

I use a glue called F9, (yellow aliphatic I think). It is very strong and I can turn (on woodlathe) pieces glued together easily within an hour, though I usually give it barely 10 minutes before I put it on the lathe, haven't lost a piece yet to parting at the join.

[Richardwoodhead]

Like you I asked around a lot about glues when I started many years ago. I went to all the big name woodworkers around here (furniture gallery guys, etc) and they almost univerally used a two part epoxy resin called "West System". It's very strong and gap filling. After using it for years I've never had any joint failures. You'd need to speak to someone who's used the stuff, because it's quite runny to start with and needs mixing with fibreglass powder to thicken up to the desired viscosity. I think it was originally developed for use as a marine / boat building glue.

I've used other 2 part epoxy resins, and they all work well (Conglue, Technieglue).

As long as you use a "slow" hardener, you'll have about 30 minutes for the glue-up. Which can be very useful if you're dealing with multiple boards and lots of biscuits. The PVA's and alaphatic resins can get tacky pretty fast. But the resins require at least 12 hours in the clamps.

The woodwork teacher at the local high school is now using "yellow glue" (alaphatic resin) which he likes because it's much faster (MUST be clamped, but only for 20 minutes or so). It's also very strong. I've started using it for some panels and find it's easier to achieve the "perfect" butt (edge) join for boards (invisible glue line) than with the epoxy resins. But you have to work faster, which can be a hassle if it's a big job with lots of biscuits. Also, these glues (like PVA's) are not gap filling. You need wood on wood contact for maximum strength.

The epoxy resins are a bit "thicker" and sometimes leave a very thin glue line. I've found if I make sure there's only a very thin layer of resin, I get a better (almost invisible) glue line for edge joins. Also, the resins can be coloured by oxides or fine wood dust to make them almost identical in colour to the wood. So you can get an "invisible" join.

For all mortice & tenon and "structural" joins I would highly recommend the epoxy resins - because of their gap filling properties. Even if the join is not cut perfectly, the resin (put lots on!) will take care of the gaps. They fill up any gaps where wood is not touching wood - and hold firm. Try to clean up any excess resin on M&T joins after clamping before it sets (same for PVA's / yellow glue) - otherwise you'll be detail sanding for ages. Don't worry about excess on panels / table top board joins. Just sand back after the clamps are removed.

[Sturdee]

Lou,

I have a number of glues in the workshop as I found that different glues are better for different purposes. Of course everyone has their favourites but mine are:


Yellow glue (A.V.Syntec AV180) which is similar to the Triton glue which I use when working with chipboard and MDF. Sort of the cheap everyday type of glue.

Garret Wade 202 GF, which is better than the yellow glue, for glueing timber. The Garret Wade glue I find very good, it requires very little clamping times as something glued up before lunch can often be worked on after lunch. Gap filling quality is good and although more expensive than the yellow glue you only need to glue one side thus using less of it.

Hide glue, for veneering and repair work on older furniture, especially repairing chair legs, as this is the only glue that will adhere to old hide glue.

Araldite epoxy glue, for glueing metal and timber together when making jigs and tools.

Contact adhesive (Syntec AV55) for glueing on laminates.

Hot melt glue gun for temporary fixing things. This is very handy at times.


Peter.

BTW On behalf of our Triton club I buy the 5 Lt. container of Garret Wade’s glue and then decant it into 500-ml bottles and sell them to club members for $ 10 each. Every time we have done this they sold very quickly.

[journeyman Mick]

AV-56 clear for gluing melamine board
AV-55 sprayable contact for laminate
AV-270 cross linking (single pack) PVA for general purpose
Epoxy resin with 2 different speed hardeners and thickening agent for structural and laminating timber
Sikaflex 290 or Bostik Matrix for adhesive/sealant, lamipanel, splashbacks etc
Hot glue gun for temporary fix or holding panels while sikaflex goes off

sticky Mick

[AlexS]

AV180 or Triton for most things
AV140 or Aquadhere if I need a bit more time or don't want to show a glue line
Techniglue epoxy if it needs to be coloured or needs gap-filling or for veneering