problems gluing mango

[Dave Sharpe]

I picked up several Mango planks while in Hawaii on vacation a few months ago, and I'm attempting to make some picture frames for some of our vacation photos. Mango is a very pretty wood, with pronounced figure and streaks of pink throughout the wood, but I'm having a devil of a time getting good glue joints. I'm attempting to glue end-grain to end-grain at mitered corners, then place a contrasting spline across the face of the joint for strength and appearance. The trouble is that the mitered corners don't seem to hold together long enough to let me cut the kerf and glue in a spline. I've tried Titebond II with poor results - possibly due to the shop being unheated and around 50 - 60 degrees, but I haven't had that issue with other glue-ups. I've also tried epoxy with slightly better results but still experiencing failure as soon as I attempt to sand the joint smooth prior to cutting the spline kerf.
Anyone out there worked with Mango and had similar problems? or better yet, discovered a solution? I suppose I could go to a different type of joint with more face grain glueing surface, but now it's become a personal challenge that I want to overcome.

[Mike Cruz]

I've never worked with Mango and am curious... Is the wood oily or maybe a little damp still? Sounds like a pretty wood. Have never heard of anything made out of it. Maybe there's a good reason?

Maybe you could post some pics...

[Mike Henderson]

Put a spline in it, but do it a bit differently. Use your table saw and cut a kerf along the miter face. Do the same on the other face. Then make a spline - with the grain running from side to side - the thickness of the saw kerf. Glue it all up at one time.

Alternately, put a small biscuit across the joint when you glue it up, then cut your spline the way you described. Your spline will add some strength but will be mainly decorative. If the frame is not too wide, use the ff biscuits. You can cut for those with a slot cutter - you don't need the PC biscuit joiner.

Mike

[Brent Ring]

Would an Acetone wipe just prior to gluing help? It works for oily woods.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Mango is not oily. On the contrary, it's very porous (sp?). (full of holes and faily open grained.) It is very beautiful wood. IMO it's the glue, Titebond II takes a little longer to "set up" in my experiences. You could wait until the mitered joint dries, and then put the deco spline in. I've had TB II joints move an hour after clamping. If/when I do use TB II, I let the joint dry for at least 6 hours. Most times, I let it dry overrnight. I have not had that problem with orginal TB.

I've seen mango with colors from black, red, brown, tan, almost white, and turquoise blue (a fungus). In the same log. I've not seen pink though.

[Dave Sharpe]

Thanks all for the replies, I agree that I have two major problems:

1. The glue: either it's too old or too cold. I'll try with some other form of carpentry glue and see if I get better results.

2. The end grain itself - As Kyle said, the wood isn't oily at all, and is quite dry. But it's also rather porous so gluing end-grain to end-grain is a bit like gluing the ends of drinking straws together. I've tried coating the ends with glue first, but that doesn't seem to help. I may try your method Mike, but that may turn into more work than I really want to do.

BTW, I also bought some Koa while visiting Hawaii, and that worked quite well for the same project, making some beautiful frames. Haven't tried the Monkeypod yet.....