Good news / Bad news Glue up. (Long)

[Mike Circo]

Good news is that the glue-up of my son’s computer desk ended up just fine.
The bad news is that it was a stress inducing, “arggh” inducing moment.

The setup:
I’m trying loose tenon joints for the first time. No reason, just trying something different and wanted to see how it went together. So that leaves me with a lot of mortises, lots of tenon pieces, lots of legs, stiles, rails and panels. I smartly labeled everything on the end grain so it wouldn’t show and prepared for the glue up.

The good decision:
Since this is a glue up with lots of pieces I decided I wanted the long open time that a poly glue gives me. (I’ve had excellent results with Polyurethane glue despite many folks who hate it. I call it a lack of experience.) Anyway… I start the glue application process and all is going well. Lots of gluing to do and I thank my lucky stars that I opted for a long open time glue.

The bad decision:
As I start assembly, I notice that the glue obscures my pencil marks for piece orientation. Oops! Don’t put marks in an area where they will be covered by glue. (I did not mark the work faces as I wanted to avoid additional cleaning and/or erasing). I did not worry as I was pretty sure about all the pieces.

The panic:
Glue up is done and assembled. Clamps on and I’m checking for square. Then I notice that there is a ½” gap at the top of the rail to leg section. I installed the entire back panel upside down! The bottom rails don’t line up and the top doesn’t align with the leg tops.

The good decision saves me:
Quickly I attempt to disassemble the desk. A bit of a strain and a few wacks with a rubber mallet and it comes apart okay. The glue had barely started to grip, but did not yet foam up. I QUICKLY flipped the piece, reapplied glue where needed and clamped it back together the right way.

Poly glue to the rescue:
That reassembly seems easy, but as I rushed, and the piece was big, and some of the loose tenons stuck in leg mortises and some in rail mortises, I had a LOT of manipulation of large unwieldy and GLUE COVERED pieces. After the clamps were on, I had glue in a lot of unintended places. But… paper towels, mineral spirits, a lot of wiping I got 90% of the glue cleaned off. The last 10% was easily handled by sanding. I can detect no interference with finish from that adventure.

Lessons:
- Use easy to see assembly marks. I’ll use blue tape next time.
- Have all the tools on hand. If I was out of Minerals spirits I would have been dead.
- Watch carefully as you assemble. I could have seen that upside down panel if I was just a bit more aware.
- Don’t dismiss Poly glue for big glue-ups. The biggest complaint is clean-up and Mineral spirits work perfect.
- “Scrambling” is part of the woodworking adventure.

[Robert Reece]

The real gem for me in your story is "use blue tape". I'm not sure that would have occurred to me, but when a big glue up comes my way, I'll remember that.

[Cary Falk]

I am working on a large glueup and I am only gluing up a couple of joints at a time. That give me time to assemble and make sure the few joints that have glue on them are correct.

[Mike Circo]

I am working on a large glueup and I am only gluing up a couple of joints at a time. That give me time to assemble and make sure the few joints that have glue on them are correct.

Yep, pretty much standard practice. Side panels were done already, but back (with 4 panels and 3 stiles) plus front with two rails and drawer openings all still had to be done simultaneously.

[Ralph Okonieski]

I actually use at least three different colors of "painter" tape: blue, lavender and neutral. The different colors are used to denote among other things, front and back or left and right. The lighter colors are used where marking connections with a pencil or pen are required; the blue is too dark for my eyes to easily pick up any markings. I often wish there were a few more colors available although I've not searched on the internet. This works for me but may not be to other approaches.

[Lee Schierer]

Good lessons learned; however, where is it written that a woodworker has to do an entire glue up in one session.

I hear complaints about open time on glue all the time, yet I've rarely seen a piece that could be glued in two or three steps, even if it meant assemblying the entire piece and only putting glue on a few joints, clamping everything, making the piece square and letting the glue set up. In a couple of hours, come back take off some of the clamps, apply glue to more joints and reassemble. Repeat this process as required until everything is glued.

It sure saves on strained nerves.

P.S. Lacquer thinner cleans up urethane glue better than mineral spirits. It even removes the brown stains from your hands where you missed cleaning it up.

[Steve Clardy]

In a couple of hours, come back take off some of the clamps, apply glue to more joints and reassemble. Repeat this process as required until everything is glued.

It sure saves on strained nerves.

Yep. That's the way I assemble 6 panel refrigerator end panels, entry doors, etc.

Sure saves some headaches.

[Jacob Mac]

Good lessons learned; however, where is it written that a woodworker has to do an entire glue up in one session.

I hear complaints about open time on glue all the time, yet I've rarely seen a piece that could be glued in two or three steps, even if it meant assemblying the entire piece and only putting glue on a few joints, clamping everything, making the piece square and letting the glue set up. In a couple of hours, come back take off some of the clamps, apply glue to more joints and reassemble. Repeat this process as required until everything is glued.

It sure saves on strained nerves.

P.S. Lacquer thinner cleans up urethane glue better than mineral spirits. It even removes the brown stains from your hands where you missed cleaning it up.

I learned this the hard way when I was doing my glue up on my workbench last week. Oh well, nothing a little epoxy won't fix (hopefully).

[Peter Quinn]

Good lessons learned; however, where is it written that a woodworker has to do an entire glue up in one session.

I hear complaints about open time on glue all the time, yet I've rarely seen a piece that could be glued in two or three steps, even if it meant assemblying the entire piece and only putting glue on a few joints, clamping everything, making the piece square and letting the glue set up. In a couple of hours, come back take off some of the clamps, apply glue to more joints and reassemble. Repeat this process as required until everything is glued.

It sure saves on strained nerves.
.

Ditto, ditto, ditto. I haven't seen many assemblies that couldn't be broken down into sub assemblies, and the idea to dry clamp some joints and work in stages used to allude me but no more. With PVA glue the initial tack is strong enough in 30 minutes that you can often unclamp gently and glue the next stage, goes pretty quick. I have glued six panel and 15 lite doors this way, paneling systems that went floor to ceiling, wall to wall with only a few construction breaks in the field, and some teak furniture with so many sub assemblies my head was dizzy.

I don't hate poly glue, but I'm in no hurry to work with it either. Mineral spirits, acetone, lacquer thinner, I don't care what you clean it with, they are all more toxic than tap water in most locations. In any event, I have been in Mike's shoes in respect to glue up goof ups. I once glued up a set of four doors, large 1 1/4" thick pairs for a kitchen closet, with the panels in backwards. I though everything was going GREAT, got it all glued up, stepped back to admire my work when a co-worker pointed out that the rest of the kitchen had the panel profile on the same side as the molding, and wondered why I had chosen to go shaker style with these doors. OOPS. Wish I had used 45 minute epoxy at that point.