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Carole Valentine
12-11-2004, 9:02 AM
When you laminate woods for turning pens (or anything else for that matter), what type of glue do you use? I want to combine some cherry and walnut.

Steve Clardy
12-11-2004, 10:07 AM
Lots of good glues out there. I use titebond 1 or 3 on everything.

Carole Valentine
12-11-2004, 10:50 AM
And the very fine line of glue is not visible with Titebond? Guess I will just try it and see...have to be sure the joining surfaces are perfectly smooth, I guess. Thanks, Steve.

Joe Judge
12-11-2004, 11:02 AM
Besides CA glue for some things, I've been using 2 glues in my pens (and laminte pens)...

I use Titebond I, which can be clamped and leave nearly NO visible line.
Ensure two flat surfaces meet and clamp well ... and you should be OK.

I don't know about the other Titebonds, they creep or flex in ways that were not good for my guitar building. So, I've never used them.

PU glue (Gorilla glue, etc.) is VERY strong, but "foams" a bit and fills gaps (creates gaps :-) ... so thats nice glue for the tubes, not for the wood.

I've done the laminates "piecemeal" so far (small squares, glued up, table saw'd, etc), but it would seem better (in process and for nice glue joins) to do wider "sheets" of laminations. There would be more area to clamp, plane (if need be), etc. Plus, you get a number of pens per sheet vs. effort.

-- joe

Lou Morrissette
12-11-2004, 11:05 AM
Carole,

When I do my laminate bending, I've used both Titebond II or III and end up with a very thin glueline that is not noticeable in the finished product.

Lou

Kenneth George
12-11-2004, 11:27 PM
Carole, I have been using Titebond II waterproof for some time now without any issue. I find that if I sand to 150grit I get the best bond with no visible glue line.

Here is one I did with Yellow Heart and Red Heart with a Tulip wood finial;

http://www.theturnersshop.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF2407.jpg

This one is Black Walnut and Poplar;

http://www.theturnersshop.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF2493.jpg

As you can see there is no line visible. I have also used this on material that I am going cut up as pen blanks. I tend to make a rather large block and then cut it up. This would require too much CA and I like the slower drying time of the titebond.

Ken Salisbury
12-12-2004, 4:05 PM
Carole --

It depends what type of project you want to do in laminated/segmented fashion. For segmented pens I primarily use thick CA glue. For bowls I primarily use Titebond II.

This link is a segmented pen with 4 types of wood and 32 pieces using thick CA glue:


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=7205&stc=1

The following is a link to one of my web pages dealing with segmented pen construction:


http://oldrebelworkshop.com/penconstruction.htm

Another example of a segmented Corian Pen using thick CA:


http://www.oldrebelworkshop.com/freedom1.jpg

More some more threads I generated with examples of segmented/laminated pen making:


example 1 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=6062&highlight=corian+segmented)

example 2 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5927&highlight=corian+segmented)

example 3 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5879&highlight=corian+segmented)


An article for making a segmented bowl where I used Titebond:


http:www.kenswoodcentral.com/article1.htm

Joe Melton
12-12-2004, 4:31 PM
Ken, that is a very attractive pen.

How do you cut the small pieces and keep the surfaces to be glued exactly parallel to each other?
Joe

Ken Salisbury
12-12-2004, 4:47 PM
Ken, that is a very attractive pen.

How do you cut the small pieces and keep the surfaces to be glued exactly parallel to each other?
Joe

I simply glue up long pieces and slice on either my RAS or TS w/Smart Miter to the necessary length.

I edited the above post with some more links (examples 1,2,3). See: example 3 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5879&highlight=corian+segmented)

Carole Valentine
12-12-2004, 6:28 PM
Kenneth, nice turnings. It doesn't look like you have any problem at all with the glue line. Now that I think of it, I used Titebond to laminate wood for bandsaw boxes and had no problem with the finish at the glue line so I guess success lies in proper prep of the surfaces to be joined.

Carole Valentine
12-12-2004, 6:42 PM
Ken, I really like those segmented wood pens!!! Gonna try my hand at that. Don't have any corian, though I could probably go to a friends counter installation business and get his scraps. I know I will have one big piece from the sink cutout when he installs my Mom's kitchen counters next week.