resin glue?

[steven taggart]

I was given a coffee can full of powder the old man said was resin glue. Has anyone used it before? Google just turned up a bunch of ads for adhesive companies. Any tips, cautions, etc would be greatly appreciated.

[Mel Fulks]

Might be urea formaldehyde (UF), aka plastic resin glue. Google use info. The powder is tan; the mixed glue will be brown.
sometimes goes bad with time and improper storage, test it before using it on a project.

[John Downey]

Sounds like Weldwood plastic resin glue. As Mel says, brown powder.

You mix it with water and then use it for veneer or bent lams. I forget the ratio, but I have it at home if you're desperate and can wait a week. Best to measure powder to water by weight (I have a digital postal scale from Walmart for this kind of thing).

If the air is pretty dry most of the time up there in Wyoming, it probably won't have gone bad. I have some that is 10 years old and still fine. In Georgia the stuff has a limited shelf life as it picks up moisture from the air. If it's still powder it should be good, I would imagine that like portland cement, the bad stuff is rock hard.

[HANK METZ]

I had some stored for about 2 years, did a test sample and it was n.g. As others have stated, do a test before committing to a glueup.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I was given a coffee can full of powder the old man said was resin glue

I was given a couple of gallons of stuff by my father in law that he swore up and down was the ultra expensive anti freeze US Steel used in all their lot vehicles.
It wasn't.......


About $100.00 worth of engine flush and half a night standing out in the cold rain flushing the engine of my wife's Camaro later...



Moral of the story - if someone gives you something & either one or the other isn't 100% crystal clear on what it is or what it does - - toss it...

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> sometimes goes bad with time

Definitely goes bad and generally is discarded at one year. Certainly a coffee can is not a suitable storage container.

[eugene thomas]

I would toss.

[Barry Richardson]

Here in AZ plastic resin glue virtually last forever.... but humidity will kill it much quicker (so I'm told)... as for the mix ratio, just add water a little at a time till it's the consistency of honey, go easy with the water, it's easy to over do it. According to the info on my unibond container, if you mix it and it appears grainy, it has gone bad, if it mixes to a nice smooth consistency, it's good to go. If it meets that criteria, I wouldn't hesitate to use it. Just don't pour it into your gas tank....

[Mel Fulks]

Yeah. It's probably bad but if you have a use for it now ,it wouldn't hurt to test. I asked a mfg chemist specifically once if
there was degradation before going useless and he said ,no. I've taken as long as three years to use a 25 pound container
by putting silica gel in it, keeping the container in plastic bag, and storing in air conditioned space.

[John Downey]

Here in AZ plastic resin glue virtually last forever.... but humidity will kill it much quicker (so I'm told)... as for the mix ratio, just add water a little at a time till it's the consistency of honey, go easy with the water, it's easy to over do it. According to the info on my unibond container, if you mix it and it appears grainy, it has gone bad, if it mixes to a nice smooth consistency, it's good to go. If it meets that criteria, I wouldn't hesitate to use it. Just don't pour it into your gas tank....

Interesting, I had just assumed that it would form a solid chunk if bad. That sounds very plausible though. The stuff does last indefinitely out here where it's dry. I bought two pails of it for a job in 2003 when I lived in AZ, used some of the remaining half pail last year and it was still fine. Living out here is part of the reason I don't know what the bad glue acts like - never seen any

Good that you mention avoiding too much water - that is a sure way to get weak glue. I'd forgotten to mention it. That is also why I always mix it by weight - the correct amount of water seems like too little when you first start mixing, then as more of the powder dissolves you realize it was correct. Its one of the things I don't trust myself to eyeball!

[Steve Jenkins]

Here in Dallas area it is good for about 1year.still powdery but when mixed it is like cottage cheese. I have tossed several nearly full containers.

[steven taggart]

It was junk. But I never would have known if you fine folks would not have told me. Thanks everyone