Glue lines and staining

[HarryP]

Hello,
Firstly a congratualtions on your forum which is a great fund of information and most useful to an enthusiastic amateur like myself.
I have a specific problem which keeps on materialising and would greatly welcome some advice.
Over the last couple of years I have made a large number of items for our house in dowtown France using mainly oak and chestnut and have recently spent a considerable amount of time making a complex panelled coffre( blanket box in UK speak). The wood is chestnut and the glue used is Titebond poyurethane and I intend to stain the coffre using a mix of water-based stains.
Can anyone give me some advice on how to detect glue lines before staining as the consequence of missing a glue patch is disasterous? The stain takes on the open wood but not on the glue patch revealing a much lighter area where the grain has been blocked by the glue. I have tried using white spirit and turpentine as an indicator but since chestnut is such a light wood there is no contrast to indicate the potential problem. I have also tried pre-sealing the wood using a mild shellac mix
In most instances one can sand out the problem area and re-stain but with this item( the coffre) the panelling makes it a real problem.
Are there any master crafsmen out there who have cracked this type of problem, if so, any advice will be gratefully received
Regards HarryP

 

[White House Workshop]

I don't class myself as a master craftsman (yet :lol: ) but one tirck I use is to lightly wet the area you're worried about. The stain resistant area, if any, will show up a different colour from the surrounding area. Not easy to see on light woods, but it does work. Then you just let the wood dry and finish with a very light sanding to rub down the raised grain.

Post a pic of your coffre when it's done!

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Harry

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers
Neil

 

[ivan]

If you find you've still missed a bit, wet sand some more stain over the offending glue line, with a fine abrasive mesh pad

 

[HarryP]

Hello,
Many thanks for your advice. I have found that they work sometimes but not all. A contributary problem in this project was the fact that I have been staining a very light wood down to a very dark colour, so getting a perfect match has proven difficult.
However it is now finished and as requested here is a pic of the work minus an escutcheon which I am still waiting from UK. Glad to see the UK mail service is still as good as ever

regards HarryP[/img]

 

[PowerTool]

Hello,
Many thanks for your advice. I have found that they work sometimes but not all. A contributary problem in this project was the fact that I have been staining a very light wood down to a very dark colour, so getting a perfect match has proven difficult.
However it is now finished and as requested here is a pic of the work minus an escutcheon which I am still waiting from UK. Glad to see the UK mail service is still as good as ever

regards HarryP

Hi Harry - the spaminator blocked your link (it wears off after you've made three or four posts)
What a fantastic looking piece - very impressive!

Andrew

 

[johnnyb]

the best advice is to use a pva glue or better still a hide glue. pu glue got a massive thumbs down in a recent fww article. you will find all of these easierto remove than pu esp hide. all the glues were much stronger than pu in both tight and slack joints.

 

[DomValente]

Welcome Harry.

That's a lovely coffre, did you hand carve the panels ?

Dom

 

[HarryP]

Hello Dom,
No, I wish I could hand carve the panels, they were in fact made using a router gantry table I have designed Briefly the table covers about 1.5m(X) and 1m(Y) and the ends of the panels were cut in the x-y axis following a template and then finished with a sculpter's grounding punch. The cross-section of the panels, which are a similar curve to the ends, were cut in the z axis with the router following a vertical template and then sanded down. The router table has now become a bit of a general purpose device as I use it for all complex shaped cuts including M&T, dovetails and of course panelling.

Hello johnnyb
Thanks I will try and get my hands on this article

Harry