Departments | Shop Talk
Larry Walton
Glues We Use
If you’ve ever cooked venison or picked fir cones, it doesn’t take much imagination to realize how our ancestors started gluing stuff together. The mix of deer blood and flour gets rock hard, right quick, and once it’s on, Douglas fir pitch (a.k.a. sap) holds on tight to whatever it comes in contact with.
“Eh, William. How shalt we sticketh these goose feathers to thine arrow shafts?”
“Forsooth, fir pitch seemeth to be some dang sticky stuff. Perhaps we could mix some deer blood and flour, which haveth exceedingly wondrous adhesion characteristics.”
“But William, we’ve nary a drop of deer blood betwixt us. Tis the very self same reason we be wantin’ the arrows.”
My own glue history started with eating paste as a wee one. Pretty soon that thrill wore off and I moved on to more practical applications of generic glue, glue-all and finally hardcore carpenter’s glue, which I now purchase by the gallon.
Here are some of the glues we use on our home improvement and construction projects:
Carpenter’s Glue—As finish carpenters, we go through a lot of wood glue. On our jobs, all wood-to-wood joints on moldings get glued with carpenter’s glue, which is important to the integrity and longevity of the trim job. Wood-framed structures move as framing dries, and seasonal humidity changes affect the trim boards themselves. Even slight movement is enough to open unglued joints that were tight when installed.
- Larry Walton
- Safety Always
- Some glues, such as the contact cement we use for laminate installs, require the use of respiratory protection. I switch my respirator filters from dust to charcoal for working with contact cement. Test the seal on the mask by covering the filters, inhaling, then covering the exhalation valve and exhaling. No leaks at the face-to-mask connection? Good to go.
I had a chance recently to talk with Van Foster, technical director for Elmer’s Products. Foster explained that as a poly vinyl acetate (PVA), interior wood glue is water soluble, non-toxic and well suited to use on wood because of the way it penetrates the wood fibers. Additives in the product determine the “open time” (how long you have to get the pieces in position) and the drying times.
“Clamping is very important,” says Foster. “Clamping forces the glue inside the wood itself so it can penetrate and attach to the wood fibers.”
So strong is the bond of properly applied wood glue that I’ve seen oak edging on counter tops ripped off with great effort, leaving chunks of oak fiber attached to the counter edge.
Construction Adhesive—Construction adhesive can be an important component for preventing squeaks in floor systems and staircases. By gluing subfloors to floor joists and underlayment to the subfloor, you can significantly reduce the board-to-board and fastener-to-board movement that makes sneaking in late at night so difficult.
Contact Cement—We use contact cement to apply plastic laminates such as Formica and Wilsonart. There are some important tips for using contact cement. First, make sure surfaces are flat and clean. Second, make sure you cover both surfaces evenly. Third, be sure the glue is dry before joining the surfaces. Finally, be absolutely sure the pieces are positioned exactly the way you want them before touching them together, because once you place the glued pieces together you will not be able to move them without destroying something.
Gorilla Glue—We use Gorilla Glue for fixing stuff, mostly around the house. It’s an amazing adhesive that works on a variety of materials, such as stone, metal and ceramic, but also serves the purpose as a mainline wood glue for general carpentry and cabinetry projects. And if the glue doesn’t do it, then Gorilla Tape probably will.
Kind of reminds us of something our northern neighbor Red Green says: “If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”
—Larry Walton