1st time use of Gorilla glue

[Joe Cowan]

I am building some outdoor furniture out of cypress and plan on using gorilla glue for the first time. My concern is squeeze out, and how to clean up the joints before it hardens. With titebond, I keep a damp towel on hand and immediately wipe off the glue, and with lite sanding after it all dries, all is well. Is there a solvent for the gorilla glue that will allow me to do the same on this furniture? Any other tips before I start?

[John Schweikert]

Why not use Titebond III and forego the cleanup hassle of PVA glue?

[johnny means]

Gorilla glue is easy enough to trim with a razor after it cures. The squeeze out will become a soft, spongy foam. That being said, I say you nix the polyurethane and use epoxy.

[Jason Roehl]

Try mineral spirits while it's still wet. Also, DO NOT wet the wood before applying the glue (or during or after). Gorilla glue is moisture cure, and there is plenty of moisture in the wood to allow it to properly cure. Adding more water only makes the glue foam and expand more, causing weaker joints, or even forcing them apart.

John--Gorilla glue is not a PVA glue. PVA (polyvinyl acetate) is the major component of white and yellow wood glues. Gorilla glue is a polyurethane glue that is moisture-cure.

[Joe Cowan]

Why not use Titebond III and forego the cleanup hassle of PVA glue?

I have been thinking about just that, but wanted to try something new (and improved??) for this outdoor furniture. Still may...

[Rich Engelhardt]

GG is really neat stuff.
You buy a bottle of it and stick it on your desk for about three years.
Enough of it will harden so that it traps a big air bubble inside & when you cut the plastic bottle away, you have this big hard gob of goo with a neat air bubble trapped inside.
Sort of like an odd mini lava lamp.


Naturally - you buy a better glue for your project such as epoxy or TB III.

[Bill Huber]

Joe, I have made 8 chairs out of cypress and I used TB III on all of them, they have been out in the weather for the last 5 years and the glue is still holding just fine.

[Cody Colston]

Don't be concerned about the foam/squeezeout. Just scrape and sand it off when it dries.

That said, I'm not a fan of Gorilla glue. I've found the bond to be inconsistent. I use TBII on all my outdoor furniture and it's held up perfectly over several years now. I do keep a small bottle of GG on hand for gluing disparate materials. I say small because it will harden in the bottle eventually after opening.

[Joe Cowan]

I think I will switch back to Titebond after all this feedback. Thanks.

[Matt Meiser]

Last I checked, GG said it has "no known solvents" on the bottle. I used it once, never again. I'll use epoxy if I can't use TB II or III.

[Ellen Benkin]

Matt,
How do you clean up epoxy squeeze out?

[Matt Meiser]

Painters tape keeps most from hitting the wood, razor blades scrape any that does, and acetone can deal with it wet if that works.

[Peter Quinn]

Gorilla glue is not my favorite PU reactive (glue slang for moisture cure polyurethane). The open time is quite short, 5 minutes with moderate humidity, a bit less on the stank days of summer. I have been using the tite bond version and vastly prefer that, longer open time, less foaming, similar strength. But in my mind polyurethane is not the right glue for everything, and not ideal for some furniture work. Squeeze out is a problem with every glue, epoxy is no joy to scrape off post assembly, yellow glue seems to wipe of with water....but then sizes the wood enough to make any stain or clear appear different or not absorb around the joints, you get those nice shadows that require you to sand back to raw wood and take of the first coat of finish...big joy there. Plastic resin.....oh there's some fun to clean up. My point is no glue is perfect, most of the problems are caused by the user over gluing, I'm very guilty of this and include my self in the accusation. Cut back on the glue, half the problem solved.

When do I use PU glue? Edge to edge glue ups that will get further processing, end grain but joints (it beats the pants off of almost anything there because it expands into the end grain). Any where I can apply strong clamping pressure and live with what foam may come out. You can't really clamp a mortise and tenon forcefully unless you have made it very snug or fox wedged it. I prefer titebond for that anyway, it swells the tenons, locks things in.

So should you use it for chairs? Maybe for parts, not IMO for finished assembly.

[mreza Salav]

Matt,
How do you clean up epoxy squeeze out?

Alcohol (which I buy by the gallon).