Glue and staining

[Brian Akers]

I know this has been covered before... my predicament is that I forgot to mask off some areas that needed to be glued. I masked of most of the places, just forgot a few. What's the best method of glue these pieces that I forgot to mask? Mainly where the headboard slats meet the grove in the posts on a bed. I taped the groves but forgot the 1/2" on each end of the slats...
1. Rough up area with some 80 grit?
2. Score with a knife to open some pathways up?
3. Just glue together and hope for the best?

[Wayne Lomman]

Hoping for the best is just that - hope. If you planned to glue it, a little bit of work will fix the problem. Use a 25mm Chisel as a scraper and scrape the finish off. Put some tape across the slat to mark the limit of the bare area. Start at the tape line and scrape towards the edge. This removes the finish with minimal timber loss and has no risk of damaging seen areas. Finish with a light sand with 80 paper. Cheers

[Jim Becker]

If it's a stain with a binder/carrier, then do as Wayne mentions and scrape the ends down so that the glue has the ability to penetrate into the wood. You could even make a small jig to be able to sand the end of those slats within the distance they will be hidden in the mortise. If it's just dye...you probably don't need to worry about it.

And don't feel bad...I did a similar thing last weekend when painting the interior surfaces of some project components prior to assembly...I missed masking two small areas that will be glue surfaces and had to do the old "scrape" myself!

[Brian Akers]

Thanks guys! The stain is a typical minwax oil based stain. No finish on it yet, just the stain.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks guys! The stain is a typical minwax oil based stain. No finish on it yet, just the stain.

Since that stain has a binder (a thin wash of varnish), you'll need to remove it for your glue joints.