Gluing oak plank

[Giles watts]

Hi I biscuit jointed and glued up some oak plank recently, clamped it overnight. 24hrs later I dropped it and 1 of the joins came apart. I used standard wood glue. Should I be using a different glue??
Thanks

 

[eribaMotters]

My first thought would have been the glue has not set as the temperature has been low over night. As only one of the joints came apart then the glue itself should be fine and you can probably discount a low temperature.
That being the case it is probably down to a fault with the one joint. Was it a smooth close fit or gappy, meaning the glue would still be wet as it had insufficient time to go off. Was it so tight that the glue had been pushed out?

Colin

 

[Yojevol]

I'm surprised a biscuit joint has failed. The biscuit normally swells from water in PVA glue and locks itself solid regardless of the glue curing. So that begs the questions, what type of glue and what type of biscuit? Cheap plywood biscuits don't expand as well as the proper beech ones.
Brian

 

[pgrbff]

Old PVA or PVA that has gone under 5C can produce weak joints. I use Cascamite for most jobs and occasionally Titebond III. Cascamite seems to be back to its old self now it's made by Eureka.

 

[Fitzroy]

Assuming you mean PVA glue by ‘standard wood glue’ then no you do not need another glue. I have made plenty of items from oak using PVA as the glue type.

Regards other things that could have caused your issue they are well covered above.

F.

 

[Giles watts]

My first thought would have been the glue has not set as the temperature has been low over night. As only one of the joints came apart then the glue itself should be fine and you can probably discount a low temperature.
That being the case it is probably down to a fault with the one joint. Was it a smooth close fit or gappy, meaning the glue would still be wet as it had insufficient time to go off. Was it so tight that the glue had been pushed out?

Colin

Thanks Colin
It was planed oak plank straight from my wood yard so perfect fit. Temperature over the 24hrs was about 15 degrees so no issue with either of those. So I'm wondering if there is a better glue for oak

 

[eribaMotters]

As mentioned above, pva can go off if it has been stored at low temperature. We moved a year ago to a new build bungalow where the attached garage is a single block construction. I know the temperature inside is lower than our previous attached garage which was cavity wall insulated construction. I now store all water based paints inside the house and move my Titebond 3 indoors over winter.

Colin

 

[Jones]

Best practice is to prepare and glue within a few hours. If timber is prepared and left the surface can get contaminated with dust and dirt which can affect the glueing. If you bought par that's been sitting around awhile you should clean the faces before glueing.

 

[niall Y]

The glue joints between boards can fail, at times, for what appears to be no obvious reason. I have had this happen with both Cascamite and PVA. If it is not low temperatures or old faulty glue, it could be over clamping. Too much force, to try and close up gaps can lead to the glue being pushed out in other parts of the joint.
Rubbed joints of old were often simply that, with hide glue and the boards laid against a pair of battens sloped against a wall - not a clamp in sight.
As for the type of glue for Oak some folk try and avoid using PVA as it can often give a blackened glue line - though I don't find that this happens so much now with the modern PVA glues.