When gluing, wipe or scrape?

[Brad Cambell]

Ok, now I'm showing my newness.

As I get into furniture, I have a question on whether it is better to wipe the glue while it is wet or let the glue dry and scrape or chisel.

I made some candle holders from a woodsmith plan for mothers and grandparents this past Christmas, five in all. I used maple as the base and walnut for the legs. Well, the projects turned out well....until I went to finish them. As soon as I put the clear urethane on. The glue in the walnut reared its ugly head! I went back to all the projects and sanded and sanded. The problem was exacerbated because there were four legs and each leg had eight sides to sand! Times five projects. Sanding was very slow going because I had to go across grain to remove the glue. Then sand out the scratches. There was still a spot, here and there, that got into the pores of the legs. The projects turned out great but it took hours and hours of sanding. My step mom had tears in her eyes as she opened her gift.

Since then, I have built a base cabinet and this time I did not touch any glue drips until it was starting to set but not hard yet. This seems to work ok but as I am making more fine furniture and want it to look perfect.........

It seems to be a "catch 22". Wipe with a damp cloth while its wet, and push some glue into the pores of the wood. Which will have to be sanded later. Which is very hard in corners.
Or wait until it is setting and scrape away the setting glue. This takes care of most of the glue getting pushed into the pores. But lends to the probability of gouging.

So what do you recommend?

[Dave Richards]

I wait until the glue is dry and scrape it off. Wiping the glue, even with a damp rag, means you'll spread the glue across the surface where it can soak in and affect the way stains and finishes take to the wood. I temporarily dry clamp the parts and run a bar of cheap canning paraffin along the seam to mask the wood from any squeeze out. The glue sits on top of the paraffin until it is dry. I use a card scraper to quickly remove the glue and most of the paraffin. Then a wipe with mineral spirits gets the rest of the paraffin and, in case I missed a spot with the paraffin, the mineral spirits will make any remaining glue show up so I can get rid of it, too.

[John Coloccia]

When squeeze out is a potential problem, I dry fit, masking tape the exposed wood, and then glue it. Lift the tape, and no mess. That said, I normally remove squeeze out with a "glue" chisel....just some old chisel that I don't mind destroying. To get into corners, you can stick a damp paper towel on a stick....or your glue chisel.

The other big "trick", and this is what I do most often, is I set a timer for about 10 or 15 minutes...I have a kitchen timer in the shop just for this. When it goes off, I remove the squeeze out with my glue chisel or some other convenient pointy piece of wood, or whatever. The Titebond will have gummed up into something resembling rubber cement and will come right off with no mess. I learned that one from William Cumpiano, and the first time I saw it was a head slapping "Why didn't I think of that" experience.

[John Donofrio]

Or wait until it is setting and scrape away the setting glue. This takes care of most of the glue getting pushed into the pores. But lends to the probability of gouging.


That's what I do. I never wipe it after it's freshly applied, too much spreading it around and as you stated it gets in the pores and just makes a mess. To scrape it after it tacks up I use a very thin and flexible putty knife. Works well and does not scratch up the surface if you're careful. Have a wet rag handy to keep the putty knife clean. If there is glue left after it has dried I use a card scraper to remove it.

[Kevin Jenness]

Where possible/practical, prefinishing parts prior to assembly will allow glue to be popped off after cure, otherwise pretreatment with a non-silicone bearing wax followed by similar glue removal and washing away the wax prior to finishing.

[Brad Cambell]

I never thought of using paraffin wax. I will definitely try that.

Wouldn't pre finishing make the joints tight?

[Dave Richards]

Prefinishing would keep the glue from soaking into the surface but if you scrape or sand the squeeze out off, you'll damage the finish.

[Prashun Patel]

There's a product spotlighted in this month's FWW: Waxilit (apparently paste wax works as well) that seems to work.

However, I'm always amazed how much trouble people go to mask and prevent glue squeeze out. I am too lazy. I let it squeeze out. On panels, I try to remember to come back to the joint 30 mins later and gently pop off the big glue bubbles. However, most of the times I forget and it dries hard. I use a 'beater' plane to scrape it all down to flush, then sand per normal.

On corners and mortises, I use a WET paper towel and a spatula or screw to take off the glue right as the joint is clamped. If you wipe a few times fairly aggressively, you get ALL the glue - even the mythological stuff that gets pushed down into the pores. IMHO people are too worried about wiping aggressively with a wet towel the squeeze out; I've never had a joint compromised for it.

If there's a surface I can't get to after glue up, then the bigger issue for me is proper prepping and finishing; so I try to prefinish those areas. Then glue is a non-issue.

[Matt Schroeder]

When I remember to have one handy, I use a soda straw pushed into the corner to remove glue. Hold it at about a 30 deg angle to the surface, push hard against the corner so the straw deforms to the contour of the corner, and push. The glue slides up into the straw and away from the piece. When it gets too full I snip off an inch or two and start again. This could be used in conjunction with some of the ideas above (wax or wiping) to get rid of the worst of the glue while it is wet without pushing it all over the place.

[Ellen Benkin]

If it is a panel being glued up I leave the parts a little thick so that I can scrape the glue line and then plane or sand the entire piece to size. I also set a timer for about 30 minutes before scraping glue lines. If I am gluing something more complicated, I try to prefinish or mask off the parts so that I don't ruin them while scraping.

[Michael Heffernan]

For M&T joints, I don't want to contend with squeeze out. Too difficult to clean up after the fact. I always chamfer the mortise mouth with a sharp chisel and have a cheap stiff bristle glue brush and paper towels ready when assembling. I glue the joint, drive it almost in and brush out the excess with the brush then drive it home. The chamfer captures any excess glue, no squeeze out.
For panel glue-ups, let it squeeze out, scrape it off in about 30 minutes, then finish it up with a card scraper. More difficult to do when the glue is completely hardened.
Dovetail joints are the most difficult for me. I tried to minimize the amount of glue I spread by using pointed tipped artist brushes for the tail and pin boards. If there is any squeeze out on the inside corners, I wait till glue is slightly set up and scrape it off with a sharp triangle or flat scraper. Gentle pressure is the key to avoid tearing out the grain.
Dadoes joints I treat like M&Ts with out the chamfer. Just wipe off the excess glue before the joint is driven home.

[Tom Willoughby]

I have used an old tooth brush and water to go over the areas with glue squeeze out. I haven't had an issue with the glue getting into the pores and affecting the finish.

Tom

[Brad Cambell]

All great advise. Thanks a lot everyone. I will bookmark this page so I can refer to it as I do my next glue up.

What I love about wood working is that even something as mundane as gluing has many different ways of being accomplished.

Tom, I would be concerned that I might get water into the joint and weaken it????

I am currently in the "let set up a while and scrape off while its gummy" group.

However, I am really wanting to try the paraffin out. Will mineral spirits affect the color of the wood?

[Dave Richards]

Mineral spirits will make the wood appear darker until it evaporates. If there's glue soaked into the wood, there'll be a light spot the same as if you applied stain to the wood. It evaporates pretty though.quickly though

[glenn bradley]

I am also a non-wiper. I set an alarm for 30 minutes and pare off any renegades with a crummy but, very sharp chisel reserved for this task. Like others have said, I use masking, cutting unseen relief channels, and pre-finishing to combat squeeze out. Oh, and my favorite; ignore it where it will never be seen. The bottom of a bookcase isn't hidden enough . . . I mean internal areas that are enclosed ;-)

[Tom Willoughby]

Tom, I would be concerned that I might get water into the joint and weaken it????



Certainly don't take my word as tried and true as I am still quite the novice woodworker but I used to get frustrated with the mess of glue squeeze out and the work involved to remove it after it dried. I read that someone else used a toothbrush and water during clamp up so I tried it and it works beautifully for me. Since the pieces of wood are being compressed together I don't think that the water is penetrating very deeply where it could impact the integrity of the joint.

Tom

[Prashun Patel]

Tom, I would be concerned that I might get water into the joint and weaken it????

However, I am really wanting to try the paraffin out. Will mineral spirits affect the color of the wood?

In theory that mit be true, but conduct yr own experiment and see if scrubbing the heck out of a well glued joint with a wet rag or toothbrush weakens it. Remember that wax and even masking risk leaving a little residue also. The only issue with wetting is that if u have already sanded, the grain in that area will raise.

i am all for nifty tricks, but here is one case that i cant help feel the solution to the problem is over engineered... With respect.

[Dave Richards]

A sign I won't bring the paraffin up again.:rolleyes:

[Jim Andrew]

When I'm gluing up parts for an assembly, I take a small brush to apply the glue, so I don't get too much applied. Just coat the surfaces with glue, if your fit is good you don't need to fill the void with glue, just use enough to hold the parts together.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

The one sure fire way to fix this issue is to just use the right amount of glue and good joinery. Like Jim says above.

[Lee Schierer]

I prefer to let it set up so the glue is rubbery and scrape it off then. Waiting until the glue is fully cured and then scraping can lead to chip out on some wood like Red Oak.

[Brett Robson]

I've always been in the wipe it off camp. In my experience, if you keep your rag/sponge clean and rinse it in clean water it does a good job and doesn't just spread the glue around.

That said, anymore I build most of my furniture projects with liquid hide glue, which won't mess up your finish the way PVA glues will should any be left behind.

[Myk Rian]

WAXILIT.
Lee Valley sells it, but not in the winter.
Look it up on their website.

[Jim Rimmer]

Wouldn't pre finishing make the joints tight?
You need to protect the gluing surfaces of the joints from the finish or you won't get good adhesion.

[Jim Rimmer]

Will mineral spirits affect the color of the wood?
As Dave said, it will make the wood darker until it evaporates but will not otherwise affect the color. Another advantage of wiping with MS is it not only picks up the glue problems, it will also highlight mill marks that need more sanding. And, IMHO, it is a good last step to get the last little bit of dust off.

[Val Kosmider]

Use an 'approriate' amount of good glue.

I keep a very damp rag nearby and as soon as the joint is clamped to my satisfaction i wetly wipe the squeeze out away. It seems to me that this is the easiest time to deal with it....when it is wet and has not had a chance to set up. I don't have any problems with glue getting into the pores or otherwise encumbering the subsequent finish material.

I like the idea of using a wet toothbrush to clean up the 'tight' sports. That is the biggest issue i have: getting the wet cloth into the tight angles between the mated materials. Good suggestion.

I just cant see the value in the extra time necessary to apply parafin (while it certainly will work) or going to the trouble of scraping up the wood by 'chiseling' off the hard glue--and then how do you get it out of the pores without sanding the wood away?

[Jim Tobias]

I'm a fan of using a straw(with an angle cut on it) to get into corners and also run along joint lines. After that, I like to use a damp toothbrush and then a dry wipe with a paper towel. Haven't had any finish problems with this approach.

Jim

[Chris Friesen]

You can just wipe it and if there is any minor residue it will stain/finish like wood so it's no big deal.