Sealing endgrain with glue

[Russell Neyman]

I rough turned and boiled two large madrone bowl blanks yesterday, but the tree had already encountered minor checking. Normally I would fill those small splits with epoxy or CA glue, but this time I'm thinking about coating it with Titebond III glue. Comments?

[Chris Studley]

I've used regular Titebond on on the pith of branch pices that I have rough turned, Seemed to work "OK" at least as far as further splitting while drying. The cracks I had were very small but it was more precautionary. If you really care about the blank then I would use what you know works for you.

[Roger Chandler]

Russell,

I have not had the privilege as of yet to turn madrone..........so take this noting my experience...........from what I have seen about madrone, it really moves a lot........my thinking is that until it is stable, you still might have some movement and the glue may not hold............that might not matter at all............if your madrone blanks are not large to begin with, then you need to attempt to save it while you can, even if not dry.............

Good luck, whatever you decide!

[Joe Kaufman]

I use old Titebond III after it starts to turn lumpy, to seal the end grain of freshly cut logs. Also use it on the face of logs with the pith removed. Tried heavy coats of latex paint on one half of the face of a log and TB III on the other and TB III resulted on fewer cracks. May not be an accurate indicator, the latex paint is sold in CA........

[Prashun Patel]

I don't know if Titebond can be capilaried up into thin cracks as well as ca.
The other problem is that titebond I and II dry yellow. They will appear as yellow through your finish, which may not be as appealing as epoxy or ca which dry clear.

[robert baccus]

Just a stray thought here. Yellow/white wood glues have little strength unless applied thin and under substancial pressure. Other applications may be just subjective. Old Forester

[Reed Gray]

I would think it would work fine. I have some madrone log sections that I have under tarps until I can get to them, and am trying Titebond 2 and some Thompson's Water Seal. I have used the Thompsons before, and it works great, though I would now use it on a rough turned bowl blank because I would not be sure of turning it all away as it penetrates end grain very well. The Titebond would form a barrier that would breathe, and not totally seal the wood, which I think would be great. I think Dale Larson anchor seals his rough blanks after boiling.

Roger, the boiling will stabilize the Madrone, just about the only way you can do it other than sinking it in a pond for a year or so.

robo hippy

[Bill Bulloch]

I know a turner that uses white glue and news paper to seal the ends of his logs. He thins the glue with water and applies it and the news paper like you would wall paper.

I haven't tried this yet, although I keep saying that I am going to.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Titebond has no gap filling ability. It will be most effective where the cracks are really tiny as long as you can get it to penetrate. Personally, if you know CA worked in the past, I would stick with it?

[Reed Gray]

Good point about the cracks. I try to cut them all out before attempting to seal and store log sections. Cracks do get bigger, every time. I hadn't thought about the newspaper. Sounds like a good idea of another type of permeable barrier. Hmm, I have some Tyvek scraps lying around.....

robo hippy

[Quinn McCarthy]

glue is all I use to seal end grain on turning blocks. works great right out of the bottle.

Q

[robert baccus]

Compare the water vapor travel through glue, varnish, laq, shellac, paint, and parrafin in the USFS study. they are all a joke compared to parrafin which is the base for all your endsealers. this is a hobby to us but the sawmillers and wood sellers will use nothing else. they have been there and done that. yhey have big bucks invested. old forester PS compare the cost of sealer and the comparison is rediculous really.