Which glue to use for this opened joint over double oven

[Don Morris]

LOML discovered this opened joint when putting dishes away from our Easter dinner. I've done research on heat resistant glues but am still a little confused as to which would be my best choice. I'm not excited about using Hide glue. I don't have a heating pot, never used it and don't anticipate ever using it again. Would Titebond III be a good choice in this situation? Thanks for any suggestions or guidance.


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[Mike Ontko]

More likely it's not temperature but humidity and moisture that caused the adhesive to fail and allow that gap to open. Titebond III or even a urethane glue would be the right choice in that case. But what concerns me more is the span of that gap--that's a pretty large offset, and there must've been a fair amount of stress built up on that one side of the cabinet to open it up that wide.

Is it possible that the oven below was wedged too tightly into the cabinet opening below (I'm assuming that the oven fits into a cavity that has panels on either side)? If that's the case, maybe opening up the space that the oven fits into would help to reduce the amount of force being applied to that joint so that it's not as prone to popping open in the future.

[Don Morris]

I'm assuming that the hole was cut to a manufacture specified size for this "Wolf" brand double oven. We put top quality ovens in good quality cabinets. At least we paid a premium fee for them. So I'm not anxious to try and remove them to shave a small amount of cabinet off what has worked well for just over 10 years. But I certainly see your point. Wouldn't that have forced the joints to open up a little earlier if that were the case?

Also, how about a pocket screw from the rail into the side stile after pulling it together with glue? I have a mini Kreg jig that seems to me might be an additional help. LOML whose not too fond of pocket screws thinks that this wouldn't show and is OK with it if the "Creekers" think it is a good idea. She doesn't trust my judgement.

[Lee Schierer]

The size of the gap concerns me as well. The first thing to try is to use a clamp to see if the joint can be closed. If it can be closed up easily then the next step is to open it back up as wide as possible. Apply painters tape to the outside face right to the edge of each piece. Then apply glue to both sides of the joint and then clamp it closed. Once the glue sets up remove the tape and that should clean up the squeeze out.

It is possible that someone missed the joint in the glue up process. After 15 years one of the dovetails on our maple kitchen drawers opened up. After removing the drawer contents and pulling the drawer out, I noted that there was no evidence of glue anywhere in the joint on both ends of that piece. The dovetails on the other side showed evidence of glue.

[John Lanciani]

If it were mine I'd pull the oven and pocket screw the rail (both ends) from the back side. It looks to me like the rail is edgebanded plywood (vertical face grain), I don't think glue alone will provide a long term satisfactory repair.

[pat warner]

I think something shifted, ceiling joist, studs, foundation?
I'd pull thing together with pocket screws or a mending plate or both.
But I'd be looking for something structural too.
Do things creak in the night?

[lowell holmes]

Do you have cracks in the sheetrock? I would look at the foundation as well.

[Prashun Patel]

That looks like a hard thing to fix without some effort. If it were me, i would cut and finish a plug. You will only see it when the door is opened. And if it becomes a big problem aesthetically or functionally later, you can opt for surgery. But for now i would just take two aspirins.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, I'd first use a pipe clamp to see if the gap can be closed. If it can, I'd use screws to fasten it. In a perfect world, you could pull the oven and use pocket screws on the inside. But pulling a wall-mounted oven is a pretty big deal. Instead, you could use screws coming in from the left. Countersink the heads, and plug the holes with wood. It won't be as pretty as fully-hidden pocket screws, but the job will be way easier.
Screws going into end grain don't hold as well as screws going into face grain. But they do have some holding power. So use longer screws. If you can get 2-3" worth of threads fully engaged in the rail, you should be okay.

[Chris Padilla]

You need to move...your house is falling down!

I would use screws AND epoxy. Epoxy because if there is glue in there (that failed as it looks like it did right at the joint), yellow glue won't stick to old yellow glue. Epoxy is about the only thing that will probably work along with screws. When you do pull the oven, look around more...could just be an isolated incident or the start of something more.

[mreza Salav]

Are those horizontal pieces dowels in the joint or are they the shelves/decks behind the frame?
Do you have such a gap inside the cabinet also in the shelves/decks? I would expect as it is such a large gap to be only in one place.
If I couldn't bring the joint back with ease I'd try to find the source of the force opening it.
To fix it, I'll take the oven out, glue and clamp the joint, then cut a piece of plywood and put it behind the joint and screw from the back the piece into the two sides of the joint using 1 1/4" long screws. Pre-drill and counter sink the plywood first. Finally remove the clamp.

[Don Morris]

I think Lee Sheirer was right on. When I shined a light into the joint, I saw absolutely no evidence of glue, just the dowels. And the dowels were clean. I put a couple clamps on it to see if it could be closed and it could. I freshened up the ends of the joints with sandpaper and applied the painters tape to the edges of the joint. I used plenty of Titebond III, clamped away and wiped off the excess. I'll take off the top and bottom clamps tomorrow then use my mini Kreg jig to put a pocket screw into the stile for good measure.

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[Bruce Volden]

This is one of the things I really like about this site, no body is afraid to jump in and offer a fellow Creeker
advice (which is usually correct)!

Lee, I'm sure Don has mailed you a check:

Bruce

[Erik Christensen]

one factor in the failure could have been the excessive heat from the self-cleaning oven cycle - I know it fries circuit boards in ovens so it might be a factor in the cabinet failure