Question about Titebond Wood Glue

[William A Johnston]

A friend and I were talking last night about glue ups on table tops ect... We were discussing the time it takes to spread the glue over a large area in order to get it clamped up before the wood glue starts to set up. We have rolled it on and brushed it on. This is not a major issue as I am not a production shop but he posed a question that I would like to have answered.

He said why don't you just get a spray pot and spray the glue on? I have never even thought about that and my initial thought was well the glue would be to thick to use a spray pot.

Has anyone had any experience with this using a Titebond 2 or 3 out of a spray pot hooked up to a compressor?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Bill

[Jim Dwight]

I haven't done it but I can't see how you would avoid a big mess. Seems like overthinking the issue. If you have too many boards to easily glue up at once before the glue starts to set you can do them in multiple glue ups. Do 3 or 4, then the other 3 or 4, then join the two bigger pieces together. I also like to use biscuits along the seam, not for strength, but to help with alignment of the boards.

My process is:

Rip straight edge on both boards with track saw
Make biscuit slots every foot or so
Get half the clamps under the boards on the glue up surface
Stand up boards as necessary to get half of each joint facing up
squirt titebond on the joint getting a little in the biscuit slot
Tap in the biscuits
smooth out the blue with my finger wiping a little on the exposed half of the biscuit
put the boards flat and get the biscuits started along the length
Get the sacrificial strips along the edges (can be skipped if you will rip off the dented edge)
Tighten the bottom clamps
Put the top clamps on and tighten

I just did two boards 8 feet long last night to make a piece a little over 16 inches wide. Took about a little less than an hour. Others could probably do quicker. If I had a longer jointer I might use that on the edges but the tracksaw does a nice job.

[Bill Adamsen]

JLT fabricates a production glue spreader for just that type of glue up.

[Randy Red Bemont]

You can also use a glue with a longer open time like titebonds hide glue. Or as stated glue up in multiple stages.

Red

[William A Johnston]

Thanks for all your responses. I do agree it sounds like a huge mess waiting to happen. Sometimes when your in a conversation with someone who helps you out every once in a while they develop these ideas on how to improve your work flow. I just wanted to get some advise from the experts here. You know the old saying "Those who can't do - Teach"

Thanks again and I will look at the JLT Fabricators web site.

Bill

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Titebond Extend is another option for more working time.

[Curt Harms]

It seems like industrial application of PVA type glue usually uses some sort of power fed roller setup. I'm sure they'd spray it if that was more efficient.

[Jamie Buxton]

When I'm spreading titebond over a large surface -- as in veneering -- I use a toothed trowel. It goes very quickly. You have to find a trowel with very fine teeth, like this -- http://www.armstrong.com/commfloorin...?itemId=50761# You can tune the trowel by filing along the edge to reduce the size of the teeth.

[Frank Drew]

Never had a problem with either white or yellow glues skinning over before I could clamp the boards, but I apprenticed using hot glue so learned to work quickly during a glue-up (aka: controlled chaos).

[Peter Quinn]

Spraying by its nature aspirates the wet liquid into a sort of thick mist of tiny droplets that, great for quick even coverage ...but things which are sprayed inevitably dry faster than things which are rolled, brushed or troweled on. So its self defeating. You could bury the medium in retarder...which in the case of PVA glue is water...and that has its obvious consequences. We spray contact cement for laminate work, in that case the accelerated dry time is a welcomed feature. The other problem is fan width. Most sprayers aren't that great at maintaining a 3/4"-1 1/2" fan width with as much pressure behind them as would be required to push PVA glue. You could probably get a AAA set up to push glue, but it would not go just where you wanted, the over spray would cause problems much more difficult to solve than spreading glue quickly.

I have yet to meet the table top or panel glue up I couldn't accomplish with a squeeze bottle of glue and a thin stick from the rubbish can. I use a thin stick like a spatula for spreading icing on a cake, put a good bead on one edge of each board (you don't have to glue both adjoining edges, just put enough glue on one edge to cover both). I glue up on standoffs so clamps can go under and over in alternating fashion, dryfit quickly to get the clamps roughly set in place, stand the boards up on edge on the standoffs, I glue and spread all the edges before laying the boards flat, pushing the wet edge into the dry edge of each adding board and giving it a little rub back and forth to spread glue on both faces. At this point I know just about how much glue to apply to get a nice even very slight bead of squeeze out once clamping pressure is applied, just have to pay attention to that. For me success favors organization.

You might use a sprayer to laminate faces of boards or sheets together as a faster alternative to a roller, but I see little value in that approach for edge grain panel fabrication. I cant see a small shop using an automated glue roller given the time required to clean the equipment probably exceeds any time saved on the volume of panel fabrication in a single day. Same holds true for the sprayer. Spray for 1 minute...clean the gun for 25 minutes, no thanks.

One way to quickly spread PVA glue with pressure is the Pizzi system from Rangate, might be worth a look if your volume requires it.

http://rangate.com/products?special=38

[jack duren]

The only way I can see a sprayer would be if you "sprayed" panels,sheets,etc face to face. We use a glue tub for the wheel but we are doing at least 300 edges at a time,,

[Richard Hash]

I would suggest you get on the phone and call Franklin Glue and ask them. They used to be pretty good at answering pretty much any technical question about their adhesives that anyone could come up with.

I'm not associated with them, but my uncle (Vester Boone) worked there for decades and is practically a legend in the company..