Bondcrete as a woodworking adhesive

I was just gluing up some lap joints that will be exposed to the weather. I was about to use the only glue I had to hand which was a standard generic PVA that was unlikely to be weatherproof. A little voice in my head reminded me I had a bottle of Bondcrete in the cupboard and remember reading it was suitable for woodwork, so working on the assumption that might be a bit more weather proof an adhesive I've just given it a try.

Does anybody here use Bondcrete for woodwork and know it's properties relative to Titebond 3 or Aquadhere Exterior?

I have used it for things that I needed to be waterproof (model plane floats). Worked well as an adhesive, but heavy compared to CA etc, and it can causes darkening along the gluelines if the article is to given a transparent or semitransparent finish. It is claimed to be suitable for work that gets occasionally wet, but not for situations where it will be permanently wet, eg the bilges of a boat that stays in the water.
In the late 1950's/early 1960's, my father built a 22ft mahogany planked inboard speedboat. He used Bondcrete as his principal adhesive for the entire project. The boat turned out to be too big to safely launch through the surf and spent a lot of time on its trailer, and ended up getting the prop shaft bent recovering to the trailer the few times that it was launched in the surf.
In the mid 70's he purchased a stern drive for it and extensively modified it, stiffening the transom a lot to carry the thrust, and switching from mid engine to stern engine configuration. To accommodate the change in centre of gravity, he opened up the planking toward the stern and eliminated the waterline taper to make the hull about 15 inches wider overall at the stern. He was unable to get the glue bonds between the frames and stringers, and planks and stringers to release using mechanical means, the planks or stringers would split about 3/16in in from the bond every time, so the original structure that had to be modified was sawn out between the bonds and then sanded or ground back with an angle grinder to the basic hull frames then rebuilt with new stringers and planking, again using Bondcrete as the primary adhesive. Overall the mods were more trouble than originally anticipated due to the bond quality, but quite effective.

Just beware that if the Bondcrete you have has been sitting for a while, it may have gone off, it goes from white to a mocha colour and a lot of the moisture in it separates out and rises to the top and it starts to pong a bit when it does. It also is very good at promoting rust in that state, so I don't suggest that it be stored in cans (other than its original). I used part of a can and decanted the rest into Ovaltine cans to minimise the air in the top of the can to try and store the remainder. Some time later the bottom rusted out of both cans and dumped the separated contents of two cans through the box of goodies that the cans were stored in. Be warned.

bondcrete has some kind of resin. It's a sealer, a bonding agent, but certainly not a waterproof adhesive. If it is exposed to weather, you can try polyurethane or even one of these sealants

Well the joints set up quite quickly. This job is not fine woodwork, I took the clamps off after about 45mins and continued to work on the frame, no problems. I'm using it from a 500ml plastic bottle I bought a couple of years ago doing some render repairs. The adhesive was still white and hadn't gone strange and the twist nozzle was still clean and not clogged up.

Seems to be good then Fuzzie. I had a 1 gal metal container and had used about half for sealing a concrete floor, and had decanted into Ovaltine cans to eliminate the prospect of having a container that was half air, half Bondcrete. I suspect that the Bondcrete container may have had some special interior coating peculiar to Bondcrete inside to prevent it corroding, as I have come across full cans that have been on the shelf for years without issue, but the food quality Ovaltine cans weren't up to it. When they leaked, everything ferrous that was in the box they leaked into started to rust rapidly as well.

Justonething, I have used bondcrete as an effective wood adhesive based on information from my father, who qualified as an all trades builder pre WW2 and worked as such into the 1980's. He built 3 timber boats using it as the primary adhesive, one of which was modified after about 20 years and is described in my first post in this thread. The resin it incorporated was able to penetrate at least 1/8in into the mahogany planking on that boat, and the bond was stronger than the timber. My father started using it when it first became available because it was being promoted to the joinery trade for assembling window frames, and was rated for use in applications where it could become wet but would not be submerged. It was probably the first of the waterproof, apply straight from the can and assemble glues available, it predates PVA, epoxies, etc by decades. I do not suggest that it is superior to the variety of modern adhesives available, but it still has its uses, particularly in cases where you have some available and it is not worth spending a small fortune on a specialty glue for a small jobs.

That's very informative, malb. I always knew that bondcrete is a versatile product and can be used like PVA. In fact, on Bunnings' website, it said that bondcrete is a Water-based, Vinyl Acetate, Polymer Mix. But I didn't think it would be a good glue to be used in wet areas. I suppose it shouldn't be all that surprising given most of its application is in the bonding of cement and mortar.
I also use diluted bondcrete mixed with sawdust to mix my wood filler. It has to be quite diluted otherwise it's kind of difficult to sand.

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Originally Posted by malb

My father started using it when it first became available because it was being promoted to the joinery trade for assembling window frames, and was rated for use in applications where it could become wet but would not be submerged. It was probably the first of the waterproof, apply straight from the can and assemble glues available, it predates PVA, epoxies, etc by decades.

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as far as I know, Bondcrete is a PVA.
I recall my own father -- a highly trained industrial chemist -- using PVA wood glue as a substitute for Bondcrete.

Bondcrete has been used for years in the building industry but there is better products available now.
I remember when our company was doing work building the then new Parliament House and we were not permitted to use Bondcrete or similar but was allowed to use Weldcrete which looked similar but had a chemical reaction with the concrete and would turn blueish purple on contact and create a superior bond.

I used bondcrete in the past and found that in hot dry conditions, it will let go after a couple of years.... Lost a fair bit of stuff because of it. Only use titebond 2 and 3 now.