Excellent glue, lousy packaging

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Steve Maskery

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I've not done a lot of woodworking in the last couple of years as I lost my workshop and haven't found its successor yet, but I do one day a week at a Community Workshop to keep my hand in and help others along the way.
The standard glue there is PVA that takes an age to cure, whereas I'm used to glue-it-clamp-it-carry-on-with-it stuff. For some years I've used WudCare PVA. It's great for general purpose gluing. Good quality, fast, and costs much less than, for example, Titebond or Evostick equivalents. Not so suitable for long open-time complex glue-ups, perhaps, but great for everything else.

My mate Jim lives next door to a woody retailer and he got me a bottle of Wudcare. Great. except that the top is now just a plain nozzle. Once punctured there is no closing it again. No cap, no cover of any kind. Nothing. Being a bit miffed that the manufacturer had spoiled a ship for the ha'p'orth of tar, I rang them up. The lady who answered offered :
<brummie accent> Stick a ni-al in it </brummie accent>
When I pointed out what a poor solution this was I was put though to someone more senior, who said it was probably a factory issue, using whatever tops were available at the time. He suggested a galvanised nail (presumably anticipating my point that a nail rusts, swells and generally knackers up the nozzle and the glue around it). I did refrain from pointing out that generally I make furniture which does not have galvanised nails as part of its construction.

There are excellent bottle closures available. What a great shame that such an excellent product is let down by a complete indifference to the issue of how useable it is in practice.

S
 
Hi Steve, if you are stuck for a container for glues you might try repurposing some other containers. For ease of handling in small projects , I use squeezy type mustard bottles . They usually come in 250 ml sizes and feature a positive seal top. When I need larger quantities for something , a dish detergent bottle is wizard. The type with a popup valve top seal quite well , and if you need to pour and spread ...unscrew the top and pour away.
 
screw-standard.jpg


Can we stop now. What with this thread and a "pencil" thread on the other side I am starting to wonder if it's me .....
 
Boots shampoo bottles @ 60p each are pretty good, once you've removed the shampoo. Mind you, you can clean PVA tops very well with boiling water. I've just resuscitated a couple of Titebond bottles that way. they shouldn't gum up, but they did

I did a quick 'survey' of PVA pricing a while back: there was a 20x difference between basic EvoStik PVA in small containers in B+Q and the Toolstation "BondLoc" stuff. OK there is more water in the BondLoc -- it's quite runny in fact -- but not 20x as much.

I keep intending to try a ketchup bottle - the farty sort - on the basis that glue-ups might be more fun if a silly noise happens at the same time...

... am I normal?

E.
 
Eric if you are not normal, then we must be abnormal together :D I use the tesco own brand ketchup bottles for glue. Nice snap closure lid. Self closing outlet on the top itself. Nice squareish bottle fits in my tool bag nicely :)
 
Heaven forbid I mention pencils after the flak we copped for article on that some time ago. However, am I alone in preferring the round bead of glue from an EvoStik bottle than the flat bead from a Titebond bottle?

Nick
 
Steve Maskery":3cd6g28q said:
I've not done a lot of woodworking in the last couple of years as I lost my workshop and haven't found its successor yet, but I do one day a week at a Community Workshop to keep my hand in and help others along the way.
The standard glue there is PVA that takes an age to cure, whereas I'm used to glue-it-clamp-it-carry-on-with-it stuff. For some years I've used WudCare PVA. It's great for general purpose gluing. Good quality, fast, and costs much less than, for example, Titebond or Evostick equivalents. Not so suitable for long open-time complex glue-ups, perhaps, but great for everything else.

My mate Jim lives next door to a woody retailer and he got me a bottle of Wudcare. Great. except that the top is now just a plain nozzle. Once punctured there is no closing it again. No cap, no cover of any kind. Nothing. Being a bit miffed that the manufacturer had spoiled a ship for the ha'p'orth of tar, I rang them up. The lady who answered offered :
<brummie accent> Stick a ni-al in it </brummie accent>
When I pointed out what a poor solution this was I was put though to someone more senior, who said it was probably a factory issue, using whatever tops were available at the time. He suggested a galvanised nail (presumably anticipating my point that a nail rusts, swells and generally knackers up the nozzle and the glue around it). I did refrain from pointing out that generally I make furniture which does not have galvanised nails as part of its construction.

There are excellent bottle closures available. What a great shame that such an excellent product is let down by a complete indifference to the issue of how useable it is in practice.

S

Steve I to had the same issue, fortunately I did keep the top from the previous bottle.
 
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