Glue with long open time

[Ian Runge]

I'm making some joints in hardwood that will take quite along time to assemble. PVA (which would be great in all other respects) will start to go off. The project involves some finger joints that if they get filled up with partially hardened glue will impede the pieces coming together properly and there would be little place for squeeze-out to go.

In the past:
1) I've used the West System epoxy with some success, but I don't need non-creep capabilities and I'd rather avoid two-part glues.
2) I have tried Titebond Polyurethane Glue for a similar application. Although it goes off relatively fast it is also faster to apply since you only apply it to one surface . But I don't think this will do the trick.

I'd appreciate any suggestions with non-gap-filling glue that will stay open for half-an-hour or more.

Ian R.

[davo453]

Noticed the other day that titebond do an extended open time version of their standard glue.

don't know what the specs are though, you could look here http://www.titebond.com/

Cheers



Dave

[Dean]

I think the product was called "Titebond Extend" but I didn't see it on their website. perhaps this was replaced with the new Titebond III (which is rather water resistant apparently) and has an open time of 10 minutes if that suits?

Probably not yet available in Australia. it was just recently released in the U.S. Give it a week or six :)

[journeyman Mick]

Ian,
I don't know if West Systems do so, but a lot of the epoxy manufacturers produce a slow hardener which greatly extends the pot life/open time. They usually produce a fast (often used in cold climates to compensate for the slower reaction times in the cold), standard (usually used when making glue) and slow (usually used when fibreglassing). As you've got the epoxy already you can just buy a small pot of the slow hardener.

Mick

[derekcohen]

Ian

Mick is correct, as usual. I was in Timbercon a couple of weeks ago looking for a similar product. They had an epoxy with a slow catalyst. Generally it goes off in about 20 minutes, then needs to cure for 24 hours. I think this one went off in about 8 hours. Give them a call and check.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[davo453]

http://www.titebond.com/ProductLineTB.asp?prodline=12&prodcat=3

I think that’s the one that I saw in Carba-tec the other day, a 15 min open time may not be long enough though.

How much open time do you think you will need?

Cheers


Dave

[Ian Runge]

Thanks everyone ...

The Titebond Extend seems to be the glue designed for the type of application. The specs from the web site say 15 minutes assembly time after glue application. I'm not sure 15 minutes is enough, but I'll check out the slow hardener for the Epoxy too.

For my application it will be easy to assemble each joint in (say) 5 minutes, but by the time I've got around to the 6th joint (whose process of gluing will invariably move the first joint a bit) the first joint has already started to harden. If the first joint has moved, then there may be semi-hardened glue in the gap then opened up -- making it hard to re-clamp the joint with no gaps. I might be able to break down the gluing into 2 sessions with max 4 glue joints in each session.

Ian R.