Which Glue

[gumborer]

Have been building furniture on and off for around 10 years now. My first prodject was a small 4 seater dinning table. Glued four 250x35mm slabs of pine with Aquadere, no biscuit joins or dowels but I did have a couple of clamps. I was living in QLD at the time ie. warm climate. 10 years on and the top has split in a couple of places but not on the joins. I now live in Gippsland Victoria and have tried several different types of glue including Selleys two part 308. Last project was bed and within a month of completion a number of the dowelled and glued joins have split. Very frustrated!! Any recommendations for glueing in the cooler climate?

[echnidna]

Did you joint the edges before you glued them together or did you just clamp them up?

[Ianab]

has split in a couple of places but not on the joins.

Problem there was timber drying out and shrinking more in the new climate, wouldn't matter what glue you used. The glue held but the wood gave way, most modern glues are stronger than the wood anyway.

Do you have a picture of the dowel join that failed? It was probably something other than the glue that let you down. :confused:

Cheers

Ian

[doug the slug]

Any recommendations for glueing in the cooler climate?

move back to queensland

[gumborer]

G-day Bob, I coated every surface to be joined with Selleys 308 including the three dowls before I applied the clamps. The timber was kiln dried silver wattle and there was plenty of excess glue after the clamps were applied. I left the clamps on for 24hrs - maybe that wasn't long enough??

[gumborer]

Good point Ian with the timber shrinkage. Sorry mate I don't have any photos.

[himzol]

Any recommendations for glueing in the cooler climate?

The only thing I do is make sure that the timber is really dry, then I bring the timber in the house and have it sit for a few weeks to see it's going to move.

Also what Bob said about the jointing of the timber before glue up. If you dont have the two surfaces almost perfectly flush you could be introducing extra stresses into the timber when you clamp up. when the clamps come off, the pressure is released, the glue holds the timber splits.

Also remember that even if timber is kiln dryed it will absorb moisture from the air when you get it home, so it needs to be stored where it's dry.

hope this helps,

Himzo.

[Jedo_03]

Also remember that even if timber is kiln dryed it will absorb moisture from the air when you get it home, so it needs to be stored where it's dry.

hope this helps,

Himzo.

Better still store the timber where it's going to be used when the job's finished so it settles to the humidity in its place

Jedo