Favoured wood glue

[skipdiver]

Titebond original for me.

 

[mr edd]

Definitely +1 for a dry run.
Cascamite for complicated external work eg. 12 pane glazed doors with lots of M&T glazing bars, PU for simple external work.

It was suggested to me that I try aerolite as it has a separate hardener, but I have not had chance to try it out as of yet.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You can (or could, about thirty years ago) get a hardener for Cascamite. It was either phosphoric or formic acid, one for Cascamite, one for Aerolite. I forget which way around they were, but I interchanged them and it seemed to make no difference. Aerolite is a superb glue, though. If you actually mixed the glue with the acid it would go off in a minute or two in warm weather.

 

[NazNomad]

I use the white Gorilla glue and can't fault it, the holding power is phenomenal.

Ditto that... and it's way cheaper than the Evo-Stik that I used to buy.

Never had a joint fail with the Gorilla wood-glue.

 

[whatknot]

Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated

You gave me exactly what I wanted to know, plus a few smiles along the way

I am glad I asked, its been informative

 

[yetloh]

Unless I missed it, no one mentioned the difficulty with pva of ensuring the complete removal of all traces of squeeze out and the effect this can have on the finished item over time. PVA and aliphatice glues (Titebond original and Extend) residues resist the penetration of finishes and also affect the degree of colour change over time. This is especially true with woods like American cherry which darkens very quickly and can result in unsightly pale patches where glue residue is present.

Although I often use PVA because it is quick and convenient, I do think hide glue either hot or in cold liquid form has real advantages, one of the most important of which is its easy reversability. Unlike with PVA if the piece ends up slightly out od square hide glue allows this to be corrected with heat to soften the glue.

Jim

 

[tomlt]

Another vote for toolstations D4, its my go to glue. I also have used cascamite on large glue ups, great stuff! And more recently i tried out gorilla glue for an external project, its messy but seems to be a very strong joint, we'll see how it holds up outside.

Used titebond original a few times and was underwhelmed to say the least, so went back to my D4 pva, strong, quick and cleans up easy with a damp cloth. Ive only really found 2 downsides, it doesnt like being stored or used cold (goes chalky) and after some 30 deg+ temps in the workshop this summer my newest 1L bottle has mostly turned into a white rubbery solid lump..oh well lesson learned. Keep it at or around room temp and its happy for its shelf life (or longer in my experience). Tend to buy a new bottle every 6 months or so as its cheap enough anyway.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[YorkshireMartin]

Morning all

I mostly do scroll work plus some other woodwork, furniture repair etc

I was wondering what was the favoured wood glue for most uses

Titebond for me, the flavour depending on what I'm doing but for general work, it's Titebond 2. It hard but is also rather quick with a short open time, which for larger pieces, isn't ideal. It's good quality stuff if stored well and popular for a reason. You just need to be absolutely sure you've done a dry run of the entire glue up and have every single thing you need to hand, because you get one chance and once chance only. I like to have a helper nearby to pass me clamps if I'm gluing up anything bigger than a side table.

yetloh has a strong point.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Everbuild 502 or D4. I have no doubt whatsoever that Titebond, Resin W and so on are good glues (only talking of PVAs) - but why pay two or three times more for something that does the same job?

 

[MatthewRedStars]

Aerolite for me. Predictable "dial in" hardening time (hours to minutes depending on hardener), no grab, no creep, can be accelerated with heat (small chip, or veneer repairs can be mashed in in with an iron).

PU for table top glue ups.

Rarely use PVA for anything other than bits of pieces, repairs etc, it's too grabby and unpredictable. I tend not to dry fittings (no time in a commercial shop) so its a poor choice.

 

[skipdiver]

Everbuild 502 or D4. I have no doubt whatsoever that Titebond, Resin W and so on are good glues (only talking of PVAs) - but why pay two or three times more for something that does the same job?

I think 502 is cheap but D4 is £6.50 for a litre at Toolstation. I buy 3.8 ltr bottles of Titebond for £25.00, so not a lot in it.

I will say though that i only started using Titebond last year when i took over someone's business and he gave me a bottle of it. When it ran out i just ordered another, but i wouldn't hesitate to use 502 or D4, as i have in the past. Still got some on my shelf in fact.

 

[Jasper42]

I use the white Gorilla glue and can't fault it, the holding power is phenomenal.

+1 and 502 for for other not so important bits.

 

[Cordy]

Custard wrote

Compare that with patient woodworker who's taken the trouble to mix up some Cascamite or uses hide glue. He can leisurely puff on his pipe and enjoy radio four, taking all the time needed to get everything square and true, with joints that are tightly drawn up.

OK, just ordered some Cascamite, not tried it before; I will soon be building a 6 ft high book-case in Sapele - using mostly Pocket hole Joinery
they say it doesn't stain much too

Will be trial testing first of course

Not sure about Radio 4 though -- The Archers might be too distracting :lol:

 

[custard]

Custard wrote

Compare that with patient woodworker who's taken the trouble to mix up some Cascamite or uses hide glue. He can leisurely puff on his pipe and enjoy radio four, taking all the time needed to get everything square and true, with joints that are tightly drawn up.

OK, just ordered some Cascamite, not tried it before; I will soon be building a 6 ft high book-case in Sapele - using mostly Pocket hole Joinery
they say it doesn't stain much too

Will be trial testing first of course

Not sure about Radio 4 though -- The Archers might be too distracting :lol:

Cascamite is a glue that every serious woodworker should have in their armoury, you don't need it all the time, or even most of the time, but when you do it'll be the difference between success and failure.

When it comes to cleaning off personally I prefer it over PVA. Because PVA sets so quickly you don't get much time to remove squeeze out. I've never had much joy with the "leave PVA until it's rubbery then peal it off" advice. When I've tried that I've still had minute lines around joints where the finish won't take. Furthermore, even when diluted with cleaning water PVA is still just dilute PVA, in other words it can still ruin your finishes. I've seen situations where craftsmen really should be investing a little more time in getting a PVA glue-up square and true, but they feel they have no choice but to move on to cleaning the squeeze out.

Cascamite (or any UF glue) seems to behave differently, beyond certain levels of dilution it appears to have no effect on finishes. However, once hardened Cascamite is like glass, and you'll then never remove it without damaging the workpiece.

So, once you've finished a Cascamite glue-up you take your time, but you do a thorough job of scrubbing the joints with hot water and an old tooth brush. Then mop it dry with paper towelling. Personally I do that entire cleaning process at least twice, and consequently I never have problems with Cascamite squeeze out (or glue stained finger prints) ruining the finish.

Good luck with your book case, that sounds like a smashing project!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Is there much difference between Cascamite and Resintite or any other generic UF adhesive?

 

[custard]

I doubt it. Cascamite has been re-branded several times but the formula seems identical.

There's a variant (Aerolite?) where the hardner is applied separately to the joint, in other words one component has the adhesive and the other component has the hardner. I'm sure this delivers a bit of extra open time, and on some projects might be useful, but in my experience with furniture the real glue-up panic begins once the components are assembled!

Most of the UF that I use comes in liquid plus liquid, or liquid plus powder form. But these are commercial UF glues that are only available in fairly large volumes and need to be dumped after 6 months max. I order them in for big laminating jobs or some types of veneering. But if I don't have that type of work on the schedule then I just use Cascamite for the smaller UF jobs that crop up on a day to day basis.

 

[yetloh]

I was told (can't remember who) that there is in fact only one serious manufacturer of UF glue and that all the various brands are therefore from the same sourcewhether they are called Cascamite, Resintite, Resinmite or whatever. The most important thing to remember about UF glue is that it will readily absorb water from the atmosphere which causes it to go off. So, buy from somewhere you can be confident has a good turnover (not a builders merchant or hardware shop) like Axminster or AG Woodcare, from whom I get mine and who do a 750g tub which I find a very handy size for my use level. If you will not use it often there is much to be said for dividing it between several airtight containers. When using it, reseal the tub as soon as you have removed the quantity of powder you need.

Mixing it with water can seem a bit of a faff but it's a great glue with a relatively long - 30 minutes or so depending on ambient temperature. It has zero creep so I like it for veneering because I can be confident that joints will not open during the drying process. As Custard says, it sets like glass so is unsuitable for situations where some flex is required such as laminated components which may be required to flex in use. PU glue is highly flexible and ideal for those situations; a glue line thick film of it will bend around a 3mm screwdriver shaft with ease and without damage.

Jim

 

[marcros]

Custard wrote

Compare that with patient woodworker who's taken the trouble to mix up some Cascamite or uses hide glue. He can leisurely puff on his pipe and enjoy radio four, taking all the time needed to get everything square and true, with joints that are tightly drawn up.

OK, just ordered some Cascamite, not tried it before; I will soon be building a 6 ft high book-case in Sapele - using mostly Pocket hole Joinery
they say it doesn't stain much too

Will be trial testing first of course

Not sure about Radio 4 though -- The Archers might be too distracting :lol:

When you get it, decant it into several smaller (airtight) containers, so you are not exposing the whole stash to the atmosphere each time you use a bit.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Here's a PDF for Aerolite if anyone's interested. An interesting point is that the addition of isopropyl alcohol to
the water will help to remove persistent residue, so presumeably that would apply to other UFs.
https://www.alansonsuk.com/cmsb/uploads ... 06-tds.pdf