Gluing lots of parts

[Joe Hillmann]

I am trying to build up my inventory of rubberband guns to sell at craft shows. Last year I would only build about 12-20 a day so gluing them wasn't to time consuming. I would just squeeze the glue onto the wood then spread it out with my fingers. But now that I am trying to build as many as I can, gluing and clamping is taking forever. Does anyone have any gluing tricks they would like to share?

[Bryan Cramer]

Would fast setting wood glue work like the new Titebond super glues made for wood? They aren't cheap though.

[Peter Quinn]

Hi Pur hot melt Polyurethane glue, 30 second bond, very strong, no clamps.

[Joe Hillmann]

I should have been more speceffic, the problem I am having is spreading the glue out without putting too much on that is drips or squeezes out.

[Prashun Patel]

What do your parts look like? Depending on your joinery, there might be a clever way to pre-mask the joint, so you can slop on the glue and then just peel it away.

Alternatively, if you can prefinish, then glue might also just pluck off. Let's see a pic of what yr making and where you need the glue to go.

Cutting relief slots is a way to capture squeezeout too.

Last, a 23 gauge pin nailer might be the ticket to replace all those clamps. On small and thin parts they are nice because they do not split wood and often don't need to be filled.

['Jacques Malan']

We use a technique at work that gave just the right amount of glue, I use it often to glue plywood wheels together for little cars.

It is a rubber car mat with lots of little rubber studs, cut to shape and dip just the tips of the studs in the glue. It leaves little dots of glue all over and it squeezes flat easily.

[Joe Hillmann]

Prashun Patel,
I would love to show you what I am working on but don't have a camera that works at the moment. But the guns are made up of 4 to 6 layers of 1/8 plywood with moving parts inside so if any glue gets squeezed into the area where the parts move the gun becomes scrap.

Jacques,
I may give that method a try, it sounds like it would work for what I am doing.

[John Coloccia]

What about contact cement? That almost seems like the ideal adhesive for what you're doing.

[Joe Hillmann]

I haven't worked with contact cement in a long time. From what I remember once the parts touch that's it, they are together for good. Do they make any that aren't quite so quick to stick?

[John Coloccia]

I haven't worked with contact cement in a long time. From what I remember once the parts touch that's it, they are together for good. Do they make any that aren't quite so quick to stick?


Not that I know of. Once it touches, you're done. That said, I'm sure it wouldn't be a big deal to just setup a straight edge, or something like that, to align the sheets as you press them together. Anyhow, it's something to try if you feel like it experimenting a bit :)

[Joe Hillmann]

Not that I know of. Once it touches, you're done. That said, I'm sure it wouldn't be a big deal to just setup a straight edge, or something like that, to align the sheets as you press them together. Anyhow, it's something to try if you feel like it experimenting a bit :)


I did a quick test with regular wood glue and it looks like I can line everything up and having it stick immediately shouldn't be a problem, so I think I will give the contact cement a try.

[Joe Hillmann]

I tried gluing up a gun with contact cement last night it was much quicker than using titebond and required no clamping, but this morning when I compared it to one glued with titebond it was very flexible, whereas the one using wood glue wouldn't bend at all. I will give the contact cement a few days to dry but I don't think it will work for what I need it to do.

[John Coloccia]

That's too bad. Was worth a shot.

[Floyd Mah]

You need to consider drilling an alignment hole(s) into your parts that you can use during assembly. Once assembled, the hole would be invisible inside the assembly. The hole can be used to hold a pin, nail, dowel or toothpick.

Cheap flux brushes from your local hardware store can be used to paint glue on, or you could use a stencil and a roller. Another alternative is to have an assistant standing by to wipe the parts with a wet cloth.

[Joe Hillmann]

You need to consider drilling an alignment hole(s) into your parts that you can use during assembly. Once assembled, the hole would be invisible inside the assembly. The hole can be used to hold a pin, nail, dowel or toothpick.

Cheap flux brushes from your local hardware store can be used to paint glue on, or you could use a stencil and a roller. Another alternative is to have an assistant standing by to wipe the parts with a wet cloth.


What do you mean by a stencil and a roller?

I may try adding a couple more alignment pins at the ends of the guns and then contact cement may work.

[Floyd Mah]

If your goal is an assembly line process, the best way to do this is to create a procedure for putting it together without much thinking or alignment. Therefore, alignment pins will help bring the parts together for simple clamping. If I had many of these to glue up and little error for sloppy glue placement, then I would build a frame that you can drop a set of parts into, like a French fitted gun case. Then I would create a stencil of light plastic and cut outlines of where the glue should be placed. Load the frame, place the stencil on top, and then a roller can be used to apply the glue. Because of the stencil, the glue will be placed only where it is intended. It can also be used with a spray contact cement, so that the roller wouldn't be needed. If the parts are different thicknesses, you can still use one frame by varying the depth of some of the cavities, so that the topmost surface of all the parts are at the same height. If you use a roller, a wet cloth or rinse in water will remove the glue from the stencil for the next application if needed.

The alignment pin idea came from an incident many years ago when my brother-in-law was trying to show me his knowledge of the 1911 Colt Pistol. He managed to take it apart very rapidly, but then spent a long time trying to get the disconnector assembly together. What was different was that it was a Series 80 gun and the newer disconnector had a spring as part of the assembly. He was familiar with the older models. I watched him for 15 minutes and then figured out how to put it together in 5 seconds. What I figured out was that the Colt company would have gone out of business if it took them 15 minutes to assemble that part. I deduced that there had to be an assembly pin to hold the parts together until they were in the frame and then the final pin ejected the assembly pin. So, sometimes what is needed to complete a process is another tool (like the alignment pin) that disappears from the final product.

[Jim Finn]

I also make and sell rubber band shooters. (I call them sister shooters) I used to make a nice gun with a simple trigger that worked well. A friend of mine also made guns and we sold them together in a shared booth. We sold about 15 of them one day. 14 of his and one of mine. His was a simple piece of wood cut to shape with a clothes pin glued to the top to hold the stretched rubber band. Mine was a much better gun but I did not sell any until he sold out. The customers would say about his: " that is just like the ones we made as kids"... Lesson learned. I gave up on the trigger I had and switched to the clothes pin idea. I now can produce these great selling guns and make four per hour . I make them of scrap MDF. I also make a rifle shaped one using a retired mop handle and join two rubber bands to make them long enough for the longer gun. I used to build up the first guns to provide a void to house the trigger but found I could make a solid gun and drill out the void I needed with a coupla' holes on my drill press. A little faster and no glue involved.