I’d like to ask what everyone uses to glue up cabinets, trim, moldings, etc. It seems that yellow glue is most common for all around use. I’ve heard that many people also use white glue, like Elmer’s, for the same jobs, and some have different glues for different tasks. Can I get away with just one glue, like white or yellow?
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Tb III is my favorite, 85% of tasks can be handled with it, waterproof and strong, On millwork casing and crown I like the Tb molding and trim glue
Woods favorite carpenter
if you do work for outside titebond 111 is called for most other cases yellow glue is fine.. don't stock up on it though.. I've had to toss more than one bottle of glue because it's gotten stringy (which means it's aged too much and will be weak)
Another possible advantage for TB III is heat resistance. If you had to pick just one glue, then it would be TB III for me. But Frenchy's right, be aware of the shelf life.
All I know is that I used TB II for a project and came down with the worst case of hives I've ever experienced. (In fact, save for poison ivy, it was the ONLY case of hives I've ever experienced.)
Probably not a hazard for small projects, but when you're going to spend a couple of hours in a moderately confined space, gluing up a lot of pieces, it's something to consider.
You may want to be careful around "dustless" drywall compound too. Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
Tu stultus es
If I need a lot of open time, I'll go out and buy a bottle of good old Elmer's. Otherwise, I use one of the Titebonds.AitchKay
Never had a problem with that, but I don't sand it very much.
Conscience is the still, small voice which tells a candidate that what he is doing is likely to lose him votes. --Anonymous
A while ago we had a discussion about wood glue on alt.home.repair
After a lot of discussion I did some semi scientific testing of Gorilla glue (polyurethane) yellow Elmers and White Elmers.
I glued somewhat identical (as close as you get with a natural product) rock maple and western red cedar sticks together with about 1 sq/in contact (again as close as I could get with my table saw) and clamped for 72 hours. I used a fish scale to break them.
Bottom line, for pure strength the yellow glue won but it was pretty close for all of them. Sanded slick smooth was better than table saw rough sawn. and in the case of the cedar also mill rough sawn. I did a lot of samples. The PE glue seems to work best with one side slightly moistened, glue on the other side. YMMV depending on the moisture in the wood. The warehouse "dry as a march fart" maple needed some moisture, the lumber yard cedar didn't seem to.
For overall ease of use, yellow is the winner. It really didn't matter about the moisture in the wood within the limits of my crude testing, good open time and easy cleanup. It is also cheap. When I laid up my maple counter tops I went with biscuits and yellow glue.
At any rate that is one test.
A buddy told me about what he thought about Gorilla glue. He said that he felt it was better for gluing a board on the end to another board on the end. I did that and it seemed to work quite well. However when face gluing some pieces I felt that the original Titebond yellow glue worked best.
I lurk both here and at Knots.
I generally use Titebond III for cabinetry and woodwork.
Titebond III info. and why I like it.
It has a high solids content, this means it has better gap filling characteristics vs. white or yellow glue. It also is waterproof when cured. TB II is water resistant. TB III also has a low working temp of 47 degrees, most other glues dont drop below 50. Good for those chilly mornings in the clients driveway or in the shop. TB III also has a ten to fifteen minute open time. Allowing more time for complex assemblies. Fifteen is pushing it though. Titebond I and II offer five to eight minutes maybe ten at most according to mfg.
Now for molding and trim work I use Titebond molding and trim glue. WILL NOT RUN. Thickest glue I have ever seen. Made wspecially for trim carps. Crown, casing, miters etc. Tacks up fast though.
Lee valley Gf 2002 glue is similar to titebond III I also use it for cabinets. Advertises an open time of 15 minutes i think.
I have a bottle of the new gorilla wood glue, looks similar to TBIII but I am not sure of the open time. I am going to try it on my next project.
For dark woods I have used the TB dark wood glue but man does it tack up fast.
One down side to TB III is it is really tough to clean out of glue bottles. I use an after market glue bottle called a Glue Bot made by fast cap. Nice bottle, it doesn't run or drip and has interchangeable tips but it is tough to get the old TB III residue out.
Hope this helps.Webby
Another glue tip and reason to use Titebond.
The general advice is replace your glue each year or sooner as glue is cheap compared to a ruined glue up. So you go to the store and by new, well who can tell if the glue has been on the shelf or in overstock for a week or a year.
Well, Titebond products provide a code that can be deciphered and lets you know when the glue was made.
Other glue makers don't.
The code goes like this. On the TB bottle you will see something like 8A571.
The first two digits are all you care about. The eight means it was made in 2008 so it is the last number of the year of mfg.
The second digit an A corresponds to the month of the year made e.g. A would be January. B would be February, C would be march etc.
The other numbers are a batch number.
KInd of helpful to remember when you go into a store that doesn't have a lot of turnover in the glue dept.
Webby
Edited 11/7/2008 5:12 pm ET by webby
Edited 11/7/2008 5:13 pm ET by webby
actually Fine Wood Working did that test very scientifically. August 2007 page 36 the weakest glue is gorilla glue with only 58% of the strength of tite bond 111 (yellow glue has 95% of it's strength)