A glue question

[Ellen Benkin]

I recently bought a new bottle of Titebond III and noticed that the bottle said "extended working time". How extended do you think it is? I'm going to be doing a complicated assembly and need all the open time I can get. Any ideas? Thanks.

[Raymond Fries]

If you do not need the water resistance of Titebond III, you could get Titebond liquid Hyde glue. It has a really long open time.

I have used it Titebond Extended and as I recall the open time was maybe 10 to 15 minutes.

Good luck with your project.

[Keith Hankins]

Well how long depends. If it's a hot day, not as long as a cool humid day. I'll include the link from their site. I find in normal conditions it's accurate. If it's real hot cut it in half. It's still much better than regular. I use it for big glueups and it will work fine. Only thing is know how to read the codes on your glue bottle to see how old the glue is. It could have been setting around for a while before you bought it.

http://www.titebond.com/product.aspx...3-3bff0a0f71ab

[Chris Padilla]

It is better than II which is better than I but it isn't dramatically so. I'd say that III has about 2-3 minutes over II but as Keith pointed out, YMMV due to the environment. If the liquid hyde doesn't grab you, epoxy is another route to consider.

[Bill Orbine]

Another suggestion is Elmer's White Glue. Really good open time but certainly not for exterior use or wet environment. As with all glues....test it before use on actual projects!

[Peter Quinn]

I've gone 15 minutes by bumping a little water into it. Actually 5% by volume is the allowable limit per Franklin's site, and thats about as thin as I'd go as it starts to get runny at that point. I'd say their time numbers are a bit conservative on the III, but the regular stuff truly gets grabby after 5 minutes, some joints would be hard to move without risk of damage to the wood much beyond that. There are adhesives with really long open time (unibond, plastic resin, epoxy with slow hardener) but they all come with down sides (toxic, tough clean up, expensive). If the assembly is truly complicated can you do it in smaller stages?

[John Vernier]

I didn't find the TBIII was dramatically longer open time than the II, and in LA things can set up pretty fast. I used Gorilla Glue back when I was in LA and wanted the longer working time, but nowadays I prefer the Titebond liquid hide glue for furniture use. I find it has the open time and lubricity of Gorilla Glue, and much easier clean-up - not to mention reversibility, which for a complicated glue-up means that you do have the option of squirting some warm water on a joint and starting over if things start to set up badly. However, as it doesn't have the "grabbiness" of yellow glue, it is less likely to give you problems in the first place.

[Rick Potter]

What's the shelf life on that liquid hide glue?

[John Vernier]

The Titebond hide glue up until just recently had an expiration date printed on the bottle. I think it was supposed to be good for a year, although I know I have used glue older than that without trouble. I prefer get small bottles at my local hardware store, so I don't end up with expired half full bottles. The last time I bought one I noticed that they no longer have an expiration date, which really bugs me. I will write the purchase date on the bottle myself, something I learned to do with all types of glue. Better safe than sorry.