What Glue?

[farmerbw]

I picked up this card holder back in January cause I thought it was cool and figured I'd never make one for myself. Unfortunately I managed to break the lid along one of the glue lines a couple of weeks or so ago. I figured no big deal just glue it back together. So I sanded the joint line clean and applied some Titebond, used painters tape for a clamp, added a weight to keep it flat, and let it sit for 4 days. As you can see from the picture it didn't hold and broke again yesterday.

So I'm wondering what glue to try next time, maybe CA? The wood is mostly Walnut but there's also Wenge, Zebrawood, Paduak, and Black Obeechie, if that makes any difference, and the lid is 1/8" thick.

TIA,
Brian.

 

[timf67]

I am not sure which glue to suggest, but I would use a piece of veneer on the inside surface and glue it all together. Hopefully the veneer will add enough strength to the joint and not add enough thickness to cause any problems... Just a thought.

 

[farmerbw]

Tim, good suggestion and one I had considered but was hoping to be able to avoid. But if that's what it's going to take to keep from having to constantly be putting this thing back together I may have to give it a go.

Thanks,
Brian.

 

[gator]

I wonder if dowels between the two pieces would help? For dowels you could use 3 or 4 23GA pins from a pin nailer. Doweling would keep the two pieces of the lid from bending at the joint line and breaking again.

George

 

[dkeller_nc]

Brain - that's really strange. An edge-grain to edge grain joint should hold really well - in fact, it should be stronger than the wood.

A couple of thoughts - is the Titebond still in date? While older stuff is OK for easy to glue woods and large surface areas, for a critical application like this it's best to have it freshly opened - say within 3 or 4 months.

I've never heard of Wenge and Zebrawood containing an excessive amount of natural oils like cocobolo or honduran rosewood, but it would definitely not hurt to clean the joint off with acetone just befor you glue it up. Just remember that some solvents can leach extractives out of tropicals, so you probably want to clean the edges of the joint off with a paper towel that's damp, not sopping, with acetone or laquer thinner.

 

[farmerbw]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

George, I hadn't considered using pins as dowels and will keep that in mind.

David, I think you're onto something with the weakness of the joint. Not sure if the pic is good enough to notice that the place it broke along is a very thin strip of the Black Obeechie. So I think it did break at the wood and not the glue joint. So maybe I just didn't get all the old glue joint off so I'm really trying to connect 2 separate glue line sections, which I assume would give me a weaker joint. I guess I need to get a little more aggressive in sanding and prepping for the next attempt. I may even need to remove everything back to the zebra wood and walnut to ensure I'm really joining wood to wood and not wood to wood with left over glue residue saturated into it. The Titebond I'm using is around 4 months old I believe, so I should be ok there I hope.

I'll play with it some more and see if I get better results from better prep.

Thanks again,
Brian.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Brian - if you have a good sharp handplane and a shooting board, I'd suggest shooting the edges rather than sanding them. Sanding almost always results in a bit of rounding on the two 90 corners of the edge of the board, and I'd think you want the absolute maximum contact between the two pieces. It's also fairly difficult to sand an exactly 90 degree edge, and Titebond in particular isn't all that good at filling gaps.

If you're not a handplane person and want to stop by my place, I'll shoot the two edges for you. Should take about 5 minutes (or less). Shoot me a PM.

 

[farmerbw]

David, I'm not presently handplane equipped and may take you up on the offer. Thanks :icon_thum

Brian.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Hey Brian - Let me know whether our repair yesterday held up. For others reading, Brian came over to my shop and we shot the two pieces clean and square with a miter plane on a shooting board, and re-glued them with Titebond III after first cleaning the joint with acetone to ensure the best bond we could get.

 

[farmerbw]

David, thanks again for the help and it was good meeting you and seeing your shop. I just got back from running the kids from a B'day party and got a chance to take a look at it and clean it up some. The glue seems to be holding well and everything is still lined up and true. I've exerted as much force as I dare on the lid closed and opened and it seems to be holding well, but only time will tell. I'll definately not be carrying it in my pants pocket any more and pushing my luck.

You left out the part of our visit that I enjoyed probably more than fixing my biz card holder. I really enjoyed, and learned from, the handplane demo on how to joint, square, and flatten boards while the glue was setting.:icon_thum You've got a huge collection of planes and know how to use them!! :gar-Bi

Anywho, on to the after pics.

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

Thanks again to everyone for all the suggestions.
Brian.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Brian - Good to know the repair worked, at least so far. My guess is the Titebond III may tolerate the Carolina heat and humidity a bit better than the original Titebond. This is actually a fairly tough challenge for a box maker - most boxes are jewelry, humidor, or trinket boxes that set on the shelf in air-conditioned comfort. But this little gizmo is different - after all, what good is a business card holder if you can't take it with you?

Enjoyed the visit - it was good to be able to demonstrate that in person. I've tried to explain the same thing on net forums several times, but it just doesn't come across nearly as well as in person.