Glue Removal

[John Hulett]

What is your preferred method for glue removal? Actually, lets start with the glue-up itself; do you use a sponge or rag, etc., and try to clean as much as you can get off before the glue dries, or do you let it go and find it easier to break off the big chunks?

- John

[Phil Ordway]

CLean up behind your work with appropriate solvent and rags. Use a heat gun and scraper, putty knife etc. to remove hardened glue.

[Travis Johnson]

I do a number of things to keep wayward glue from ruining the finish of my project.

One of the first things I try to do is not use glue at all. If a screw and plug will work and not be seen in my project, I'll use a few of those as a joinery method. The idea being, if you don't use glue, it will be a lot easier to clean up.

Since glue is a nessesity in any shop, and screwed and plugged holes can only go so far, I usually let the beads of glue in a joint set up first and then clean them up with a chisel destined for that pupose (as opposed to my mortise or dovetailing chisels). I try not to wipe up glue with a damp cloth because it tends to spread it.

One of the last things I do is make sure any glue is cleaned up before I apply any boards or sub-assemblies to a project. Rather than wait until the whole project is done being fabricated and risk not being able to reach a glued area, I treat every board or sub-assembly like it will be the last time I touch it before finish is applied. Glue, pencil marks, spot-sanding are all made at this time, and then it is attached to the project. This makes for a much neater overall project without glue smudges.

[Al Navas]

1. During glue-up: Wet rags and a toothbrush everywhere. Easier to remove the beads as the glue starts to harden.

2. Hardened glue: Use a scraper or a dedicated chisel and work carefully to avoid damaging surfaces.


Al

[Doug Shepard]

I try to resist the the temptation to wipe with a wet rag unless I really screw up with too much glue and get big amounts of squeeze-out. I'm trying to resist the temptation to use too much glue too, but that's another issue. I find I get a lot less finishing problems if I wait until the glue is half-hard (about 1-1.5 hours) then peel it off with a sharp chisel. Blue taping off the joints during dry fitting is a big help for complicated glue ups or ones where it's hard to get in to with tools to remove the glue later. Just peel off the tape after a couple of hours and you're usually left with virtually nothing else left to remove.

[Mark Pruitt]

Doug, I did that once and in my haste I got the tape a little too close to the corner. Wound up with a tiny little piece of tape permanently glued in place. LOL. BTW, the operative word there is "once."

John, don't let that scare you away from doing what Doug suggested. It's an excellent tactic as long as you don't do what I did on that one occasion.

[John Huber]

To start with, I put two coats of wipe-on finish on the stock. This gives me a better understanding of the quality of the grain and how it will look in the lighting of where the piece will be viewed. This is especially important in culy maple and other highly-figured woods. Be sure to mask off the gluing surfaces.

Then any squeeze-out tends to not stick to the finish. The trouble with wet wipes is some of the water gets into the glued joint and dilutes the glue there. I can't prove that it weakens the bond, but I worry about it.

However much wiping I do, there seems to be a thin film of glue left. It interferes with subsequent finishing steps. Scrape it off with a sharp chisel.

I've had a hard time breaking the habit of applying too much glue. Lately I shoot for one bead of squeeze-out for each inch of seam. How do others feel about this?

[Doug Shepard]

Doug, I did that once and in my haste I got the tape a little too close to the corner. Wound up with a tiny little piece of tape permanently glued in place. LOL. BTW, the operative word there is "once."

John, don't let that scare you away from doing what Doug suggested. It's an excellent tactic as long as you don't do what I did on that one occasion.

\

Been there/Done that. That's why I said "you're usually left with virtually nothing else left to remove". Now I try to keep the tape back about 1/64 or 1/32 back from the joint. It leaves you just a tiny sliver of glue cleanup to do but sure beats trying to finesse that little sliver of blue out of the joint.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I'm with the rest of the group here. Don't wipe at it. Everytime I've tried to wipe it off - no matter how wet the rag was - I smeared it around and squished it deeper into the wood fibers. ARRRGGGGHHHH

Some say that if you use enough water you can flush it from the grain. OK that sounds a bit drastic and adding lots of water to dried wood seems counterintuitive. I never tried it though - maybe I should.

I wait till it's pretty stiff and use a chisel

I also try to control glue volume.

If you use Hyde glue it's easier as you can control the set-up time keep it short and sweet so any squeeze out doesn't penetrate much.

[Steve Clardy]

I try to scrap it off before it gets totally hard.
I never use the rag, water thing

[Mark Pruitt]

Here's another trick that also works for me, as long as there is not an inordinate amount of sqeeze-out. I'll take a paper towel, wad it into a round shape, wet it, and use a twisting motion as I wipe the sqeeze-out from the surface. The twisting motion ensures that there is always a "fresh" unused portion of the paper towel contacting the surface. That way I avoid the smearing issue. I'm very cautious about this method when working with more porous species of wood such as oak, because larger pores create more opportunities for the glue to embed itself and produce a major headache down the road.

[Bob Reeve]

Another tactic that I was taught and use is to wax the area around the joint you are making and the glue will not stick. If you are using an oil type finish as a start it will disolve the wax, if not a little mineral spirits does the job. I wait till the glue is semi hard to hard and use a chisel.

[Jerry Strojny]

This thread addressing one of my biggest problems. Thank you John for putting it out there. I always seem to screw up the glue and somewhere on the project I have a "glue stain" that I find during the finishing. I'm getting the impression that I need to put down the rag and wait for the glue to get semi hard before I scrape it off. (And probably use a little less glue.) Sorry I have no words of wisdom.

[Byron Trantham]

Over the last couple years I have taken a whole new (for me) approach to finish and assembly. I tape all joints prior to finish and assembly. Then I apply my finish including top coat. After the finish has set up, I remove all tape and apply glue where needed and I don't care it I put on too much. Then I clamp/nail/screw as appropriate. All the squeeze out is easily removed with a damp rag. What I have gained from this approach is I can spray all surface in a horizontal mode. No runs or sags or over spray. After assembly glue is not a problem since it squeezes out onto the finish which is impervious to the glue and easily wiped off. The taped joints get the glue, the finished surfaces don't.

[John Hulett]

Blue taping off the joints during dry fitting is a big help for complicated glue ups or ones where it's hard to get in to with tools to remove the glue later. Just peel off the tape after a couple of hours and you're usually left with virtually nothing else left to remove.

I've seen DJMarks use the tape method. Never tried it - I guess it seemed like a whole lotta fuss.

To start with, I put two coats of wipe-on finish on the stock. This gives me a better understanding of the quality of the grain and how it will look in the lighting of where the piece will be viewed. This is especially important in culy maple and other highly-figured woods. Be sure to mask off the gluing surfaces.

Then any squeeze-out tends to not stick to the finish. The trouble with wet wipes is some of the water gets into the glued joint and dilutes the glue there. I can't prove that it weakens the bond, but I worry about it.

I saw this method on Freeform Furnature - it seemed really bizzarre to me. I guess it's worth trying too.

However much wiping I do, there seems to be a thin film of glue left. It interferes with subsequent finishing steps.

This is exactly why I started this thread. I tried to do this, and I never was able to get all of the glue off. Fortunately, those were poplar/painted projects, so the issue was moot. Looking forward to other projects where I want to use nicer woods and WOP finish, and knew I needed the words of experience to help me out.

Some say that if you use enough water you can flush it from the grain. OK that sounds a bit drastic and adding lots of water to dried wood seems counterintuitive. I never tried it though - maybe I should.

That's what I've always thought! There seems to be so much fuss with wood moisture (taking a moisture meeter to the lumber yard, etc.), that this didn't make sense. Of course, neither did the concept of wetting wood at the lumber yard to see what the grain would look like once you put some finish on it.

This thread addressing one of my biggest problems. Thank you John for putting it out there.

I thought I was bringing up one of the dumbest questions of the week/month/year/decade, but I felt the potential reward outweighed the risk.

It seems like the majority let the glue set up for an hour or so, the use a chisel. Actually, I used some B-day $$ to buy the LN 97 1/2 small chisel plane just for this purpose. I'm really hoping the plane pays the dividends I think it will.

Thanks for all those who have replied so far, and look forward to more new ideas!

- John