Thread: Un-gluing

I have successfully unglued Selleys PVA in small components with some gentle direct heat either with an iron or microwave, can't comment on Titebond, be careful with the finish, if you want to retain the finish try a damp /wet rag over the joint and attempt a steaming environment.

Ian
when building the doors, did you allow a "fitting" margin on the styles -- ie a bit of extra width to be planed off later? If so could you cut the rails off with a narrow kerf saw (think Japanese saw) and redo the joints with floating tenons?
if the panels are only held by the finish you should be able to tap them out once the rails are cut free

Ian ,
Yep, I thought I did everything right but I think the finish (Cabots CFP) gummed everything up.

I used biscuits when I put the frames together so I'm hoping they won't be too difficult to dis-assemble but I'm sure they'll put up a struggle.

I have a Jap saw that'll probbaly do the trick but I am hoping for a no destructive solution if at all possible

Getting back to the possibility of freezing the PVA - have you ever tried/heard of it ?

Thanks for your response

Regards

Ian

Hi Ian

I have never tried freezing, though I have used heat to take joints apart
However, this

Originally Posted by Ian Smith

I used biscuits when I put the frames together

makes me very pesimistic. I don't think there is a non-destructive solution
Biscuits are compressed during manufacture and swell when they come in contact with the water in the glue.
I don't expect anything will budge them as a lot of their strength comes from the wedging action of the swelling rather than the glue -- even when the glue is still runny, biscuits can be a real pain to extract from their slots. DAMHIKT
On one of my Tech projects I stuffed up the location of the biscuit slots. To recover I cut some biscuits so that two pieces effectively filled the entire slot, glued them in, let the glue dry and after trimming the piece of biscuit sticking out had a repair that was as solid as the original timber. The recut slots went partly through the repair and gave me a solid joint.

In your position I think I'd try to get the panel to expand a little more -- to push the joints that bit further open -- and then cut the rails off with the Jap saw.

When reassembling, I'd use loose tenons or (shock--horror) a pair of dowels in each joint