No More Gorilla

[Jim Rimmer]

I've read several posts saying that Titebond glue is the way to go and many folks swearing off the polyurethane glue. After today, I am joining those ranks. I was gluing up a box using thru dovetails and used poly glue. WHAT A MESS!! :eek: I finished it but then threw away all that glue and will be a Titebond guy after today. :rolleyes:

[Peter Quinn]

LOL. I have come to appreciate PL adhesives after a number of unfortunate "holy cow its foaming every where how the heck am I going to clean this crap up" incidents. It has its time and place, a dovetail box is probably not it.

The biggest problem with Pl glue is using too much, it really takes a light touch. And don't try wiping off uncured squeeze out with a damp cloth.:eek:DAMHIK

[Dave Lehnert]

To be fair to Gorilla glue co. A better comparison would be their woodworking glue to tight-bond.

http://www.gorillatough.com/glues/woodglue/index.aspx

[Myk Rian]

Did I miss something there? All he did was show how to apply it.

[Bill Houghton]

You're gonna be very frustrated next time you need to glue a gorilla to something.

[Jim Rimmer]

You're gonna be very frustrated next time you need to glue a gorilla to something.
LOL Trust me, that stuff would do it. :eek:

[Martin Shupe]

I used to use Titebond, but I had problems with squeeze out causing finishing problems.

So I switched to "Old Brown Glue". It is reversable, can glue to itself, and does not cause problems with my finish. Only downside is you need to leave the clamps on for 24 hours. Not a problem for a hobbyist, but probably a deal breaker for a professional.

[Pete Bradley]

Now that the foamout has dried, is it still a mess, or did you find that the excess cleaned right up?

Pete

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Urethane glue was formulate solely to be the glue used to assemble oily wood ( like teak) furniture by slaves ( or the nearest equivalent) in tropical locations. One of the requirements was that it be moisture tolerant and It requires moisture to cure - tropical = moisture

It was a dismal failure as glues go.

So Marketing being always willing to turn garbage into cash were unwilling to let all that expensive research and production capacity go to waste so they did what they always do. They passed their losses onto the consumer by telling howling lies.

They told the consumer the howling lie that it was not merely a good glue but the world's strongest.


When I use old school white glue to stick two pieces of wood together they stick so well that the wood fails before the glue does.

I made a table top using gorilla glue a while back. It was no big deal no stress no tricky stuff. It was oak ply with oak trim and 1x4" boards underneath for rigidity.

Recently I recycled that table. Just for the deviltry of it I decided to see how well that gorilla glue was doing. I inserted my chisel in between the 4" wide board and the oak and popped the boards apart and not one tiny itty bitty shred of wood came away, The glue line failed and it failed catastrauphically and easily.

Gorilla glue is, bar none, the world's worst weakest most useless glue on the face of the planet. I'd use boiled rice starch before I used that filth again.

And the liars still call it the world's strongest.

But, they are marketing: the scum of the earth.

The only reason the stuff exists is because some arrogant sob refused to let the company take a hit on a failed glue research project and he just happened to believe that old adage "There's a sucker born every minute."

Meanwhile that bottle of the world's strongest glue I bought rolled under a bench and was never seen from again.

[Brian Kent]

Cliff, don't hold back. Tell us what you really think!

[Jim Foster]

I've used Gorilla Glue for a few things where I needed longer setup time than "white" glue would allow (Mostly very dry time of year) and it's worked great. Luckily the projects were the type that the foaming did not make the "wrong kind" of mess.

I'll also have to do a test like one of the posts mentions, just to see for myself what it's like to break a Gorilla Glue joint, (I've assumed it's as strong as the marketing liturature says) I've tried white glue joints and sure enough, it's the wood that fails on a good joint.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Urethane glue was formulate solely to be the glue used to assemble oily wood ( like teak) furniture by slaves ( or the nearest equivalent) in tropical locations. One of the requirements was that it be moisture tolerant and It requires moisture to cure - tropical = moisture

It was a dismal failure as glues go.

So Marketing being always willing to turn garbage into cash were unwilling to let all that expensive research and production capacity go to waste so they did what they always do. They passed their losses onto the consumer by telling howling lies.

They told the consumer the howling lie that it was not merely a good glue but the world's strongest.


When I use old school white glue to stick two pieces of wood together they stick so well that the wood fails before the glue does.

I made a table top using gorilla glue a while back. It was no big deal no stress no tricky stuff. It was oak ply with oak trim and 1x4" boards underneath for rigidity.

Recently I recycled that table. Just for the deviltry of it I decided to see how well that gorilla glue was doing. I inserted my chisel in between the 4" wide board and the oak and popped the boards apart and not one tiny itty bitty shred of wood came away, The glue line failed and it failed catastrauphically and easily.

Gorilla glue is, bar none, the world's worst weakest most useless glue on the face of the planet. I'd use boiled rice starch before I used that filth again.

And the liars still call it the world's strongest.

But, they are marketing: the scum of the earth.

The only reason the stuff exists is because some arrogant sob refused to let the company take a hit on a failed glue research project and he just happened to believe that old adage "There's a sucker born every minute."

Meanwhile that bottle of the world's strongest glue I bought rolled under a bench and was never seen from again.


Kind of hard to top that! I'll just agree I guess. If you feel the need to have a glue that won't mess up finishes if you smear it someplace it shouldn't be, use hide glue.

By the way, am I the only one that doesn't get the ruined finish argument against Titebond? What are you folks doing with it, wiping it off the project with a rag or something?

[Mike Henderson]

Kind of hard to top that! I'll just agree I guess. If you feel the need to have a glue that won't mess up finishes if you smear it someplace it shouldn't be, use hide glue.

By the way, am I the only one that doesn't get the ruined finish argument against Titebond? What are you folks doing with it, wiping it off the project with a rag or something?
Yeah, I've never had any serious problems with it when I apply finish. If I'm doing the initial glue up, I'm going to sand later so I'll take any glue on the wood off. If I'm doing something like a box, where I sand the inside before assembling, I put blue tape next to the joint to make sure no squeeze-out gets on the wood, and I don't slather the glue on.

Mike

[But I agree with Cliff about Gorilla glue. I tried it one time and found it didn't work very well. Threw the remainder away.]

[Bob Genovesi]

I've used Gorilla glue several times and with decent success. Having read quite a bit about it and was pre-warned about the application, staining, and foaming, I took all these into account and found it a decent glue. Always wear plastic gloves! As mentioned in posts above, I was not overly impressed with its strength but it did not come apart all that easily.

With the introduction of TiteBond lll, I found it much easier to work with and easy to clean up. The working time is longer than TiteBond ll and it's strength is superior to that of Gorilla glue.

I use TiteBond lll for all outdoor projects and where moisture is a consideration.

[Doug Shepard]

About the only good way I've found to get rid of the squeezeout is to wait about 2 hours and slice it off with a sharp chisel. It comes off pretty cleanly when it's only half hard. It's murderous tuff to get off if it completely hardens and likes to tearout some wood with it as well. Sanding works but takes longer than usual since it's very hard.
Getting the purple/brown stain off your hands is another story.
Not my favorite stuff to work with but it does have some uses.

[Paul Ryan]

I use the Gorilla WOOD glue on a reqular basis and it works good. It is equally strong to titebond and elmers, and dries clear.

The gorilla poly glue is a different animal all together. The only thing I will use it for is gluing odd materials together. I glued an aluminum sliding screen door track to the doors wooden frame 7 years ago and it is still holding strong. There aren't a whole lot of glues I know that could have done that. I use it almost as a super glue and it works well. But you have to remember the foam out which is a pain and has absolutly no strenght. When you use poly glue you have to make sure all of the foam out comes out of the joint, other wise it will be a weak joint.

[Phil Phelps]

I had a wonderful experience with Gorilla glue. I have, 'cause it's still going on, a project that requires the assembly of 140 polystyrene boxes with mitered corners. Knowing that gluing foam to foam Elmer's takes weeks to dry and many adhesivies attack foam, I was looking for something other than latex contact adhesive. A buddy tells me he used Gorilla glue and it worked perfectly on foam, except it turned his hands black. Well, I made a sample and sent it off and the project was accepted. I then cut all my parts and, using Gorilla glue, I assembled the boxes using blue tape,(about 20 pieces of tape per box), to hold the corners together. You know why I'm so pleased with it? Because I bought the wrong Gorilla glue. The hardware store only sold the Gorilla "wood" glue. Ignorance is bliss.

[glenn bradley]

I have a small bottle that I picked up back when everyone was talking it up. I still haven't opened it.

[Jason Roehl]

Poly Glue has its place, just like any other tool. I'm sure if you really wanted to, you could find a way to drill holes with a tablesaw, but why would you? So if a PVA glue works well for typical interior wood-to-wood joints, use it. But I've found poly glue works well on exterior things that may already have some moisture in them. I don't use Gorilla brand unless that's all I can find when I need some, but the Elmer's brand of poly glue is about half the price. I have glued some things together with poly glue where PVA would be appropriate, but the trick is to NOT follow the directions on the glue--don't use water, then it won't foam hardly at all, but will cure a little more slowly and be quite strong.

As for GG being the result of a failed experiment, so was the adhesive used on Post-It Notes--it was originally supposed to be a new form of super glue. 3M has sure cashed in on that failure...

[Jim Rimmer]

Now that the foamout has dried, is it still a mess, or did you find that the excess cleaned right up?

Pete
As mentioned in some other threads, it skims off with an old chisel but still needs a lot of follow up sanding.

[Jim Rimmer]

Looks like a I hit a nerve and as with most threads on SMC a diversity of opinions. I've use GG to glue up panels and to date they seem to be ok. The working time seemed to be very short and the mess is just not worth it.

[Mark Elmer]

I use GG when I glue up pen turning blanks. It seems to hold up well gluing the brass tubes into the exotic woods that I turn that sometimes can be oily. I have had better adhesion and less failures of the bond with GG than I have with epoxy or CA glues. Just my experiance.

[Chris Kennedy]

As for GG being the result of a failed experiment, so was the adhesive used on Post-It Notes--it was originally supposed to be a new form of super glue. 3M has sure cashed in on that failure...

Going back even further, super glue was an accident. When they formulated it, they weren't quite certain what compound they had made. They put the material into a refractometer (sp?), which meant that the sample had to be spread over specially made, optically neutral glass plates that were expensive to make.

And when they couldn't get the plates apart, they realized they had formulated a glue.

Cheers,

Chris

[Loren Hedahl]

The main thing I dislike about GG is it sets up in the bottle in about a month after it has been opened. So the cost to me is prohibitive.

I prefer PL polyurethane glue that fits in a caulking gun better. It is also quite a bit thicker so doesn't run as bad nor foam as bad. Also it seems to keep in the tube after being opened just fine with a cap.

So I haven't bought GG for a couple of years and probably won't again for a long time.

[Lee Schierer]

Yeah, I've never had any serious problems with it when I apply finish. If I'm doing the initial glue up, I'm going to sand later so I'll take any glue on the wood off. If I'm doing something like a box, where I sand the inside before assembling, I put blue tape next to the joint to make sure no squeeze-out gets on the wood, and I don't slather the glue on.

Mike

[But I agree with Cliff about Gorilla glue. I tried it one time and found it didn't work very well. Threw the remainder away.]

I have to agree with Mike, I've never had any serious problems with it after my first attempts where I dampened the wood. The best trick I've heard of when using polyurethane glue is to omit the moisture part. There is plenty enough mositure in the air and even kiln dried wood to cure the glue. Wetting one surface like Norm does only makes it foam like crazy. You can also clean up the glue with a rag and lacquer thinner before it cures (also removes it from your fingers). You can test this by placing a drop on a piece of foil. It will foam up and cure in a couple of hours.

I'm currently building a project out of maple and it has all been glued with polyurethane glue. Some minor foam out, but a sharp chisel and a bit of sanding takes care of that. Again I do not dampen the wood at any point in the assembly and the wood I'm using has 7% MC.

[Ed Labadie]

I just don't see any need to use Ape glue on a project that doesn't absolutely require it. Your just asking for trouble. I can't even imagine a glued up panel that needs a poly glue, "yellow" glues have been proven to be stronger than the wood, what more do you need?

I'll use the Ape glue when nothing else will work. Gluing pvc to wood is one place it really shines. I used it on all my blast gates, no problems, no failures. It also works good on some synthetic decking products.

Ed

[Quinn McCarthy]

I do a lot of end grain gluing for arched top window trim. I just use a non clamped rub joint like the segmented turners do. I have done quite a bit of stress testing of the glue joints. I started using TB II and when gorlilla glue came out I gave it a try. I made some test pieces from the same wood. the same length and same angle. I usually just clamp one side to the work bench and push down on the other piece until the glue joint failed. . TB II is way stronger than gorilla glue. When I glued them up I made sure each joint was tight and well glued. Now when TB III came out I did the same thing. TB III is way stronger than TB II is. Was this testing based on science? No. But it was good enough for me. I know not to spend that kind of money on glue that is not meeting my needs.

Don't beat me up too bad.

Quinn

[Stephen Edwards]

I purchased a small bottle of the amber colored GG 2-3 months ago for a specific project in my shop. It worked great for that little project. I've used it since then a couple of times where yellow glue wouldn't work. It did the job. It hasn't set up in the bottle with the cap screwed tightly on.

Will I use it often? No. But for me it does have it's uses.

I haven't yet tried the Gorilla Wood Glue. I'm a Titebond fan.

[Lee Schierer]

I just don't see any need to use Ape glue on a project that doesn't absolutely require it. Your just asking for trouble. I can't even imagine a glued up panel that needs a poly glue, "yellow" glues have been proven to be stronger than the wood, what more do you need?

I'll use the Ape glue when nothing else will work. Gluing pvc to wood is one place it really shines. I used it on all my blast gates, no problems, no failures. It also works good on some synthetic decking products.

Ed

Would you use Ape glue on a wagon that is likely to get left outside once or twice?

[Ed Labadie]

Nope. Titebond 2.

A couple of years ago I built some bow parts (above waterline) for a boat (sorry not a boat guy, don't know the names :o) out of 6/4 Mahogany, used tb2 on it. It's held up perfectly, owner is still happy.

Ed

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Cliff, don't hold back. Tell us what you really think!

I had to hold back. This is a family rated forum and swearing like longshoreman in a bad temper won't fly.

[Mark Smith, too]

Was watching a recent rerun of the NYW and Norm was using GG calling it (at that time) the new high tech glue. You could tell he was a big fan at that point. I wponder if he is now?

I thought I had the ideal project for GG last year: a screen door frame made of pressure treated 1x4 with half-lap joints. Knew the lumber had plenty of moisture, and it would be outdoors in the weather all the time. The door had a cross brace in the middle, one of those screen door adjustable braces, and some large mesh green plastic coated wire screening stapled on to keep critters out of the garden.

Clamped the joints and let them cure completely. No troubles last year that I could see. Not so this year. Three of the six joints had totally failed over the winter. The glue seemed to have failed, not the wood. The wood had cupped, as this wood is want to do, and the joints were completely separated. The screening was holding the doors together.

Used Titebond III to repair and installed carriage bolts since the wood was too warped to be sure of a good glue joint.

Won't go the GG route again.

[Matt Armstrong]

I like PL glues, but not for woodworking. They are outstanding under certain conditions and they were not developed to enforce slaves to assemble teak furniture in tropical conditions. That's an out and out lie.

[Phil Warnement]

Gorilla glue---------just ok

New Gorilla wood glue......used it........like it..........highly recommed it.

[Mark Patoka]

Was watching a recent rerun of the NYW and Norm was using GG calling it (at that time) the new high tech glue. You could tell he was a big fan at that point. I wponder if he is now?



I noticed the past few seasons that Titebond has become one of his sponsors so I highly doubt GG is getting anymore camera time.

I'll have to look but I think WOOD did a glue test a fews years back and IIRC, most of the glues, except for the polys did really well and the wood broke before the glue joint.

[Bill White]

Meanwhile that bottle of the world's strongest glue I bought rolled under a bench and was never seen from again.


Probably eaten by a gorilla.
Man!! That stuff sure gets bad press. I've tried it too. ONCE!!!!!
Bill :eek:

[Paul Ryan]

Gorilla glue---------just ok

New Gorilla wood glue......used it........like it..........highly recommed it.


I have stated this many time before. But

I agree completly with Phil. Gorilla WOOD glue is my everyday user. I use titebond III when I need a longer open time. If you haven't tried the gorilla WOOD glue give it a try you may like it. It cures clear, which is really nice if you stain before assembly, and it is water proof if necessary. I have done my tests and it is equally strong as the other wood glues.

[Mr. Jeff Smith]

I'm a TBII fan, but I have also used various Gorilla products depending on the project. I'm a newbie at wood working but have always felt that the different glues have their respective uses. While my preference is use TB, there are cases where Gorilla fits the bill better. I wouldn't wright either product off entireally.

[Chris Friesen]

I've read several posts saying that Titebond glue is the way to go and many folks swearing off the polyurethane glue. After today, I am joining those ranks. I was gluing up a box using thru dovetails and used poly glue. WHAT A MESS!! :eek: I finished it but then threw away all that glue and will be a Titebond guy after today. :rolleyes:

The advantage of poly glue for dovetails is that you have much longer open time (up to an hour). Doing a large dovetailed or box-jointed blanket chest would be a pretty stressful proposition with yellow glue.