Glueing Ipe

[Larry L Edinger]

Has anyone had good luck glueing Ipe for outdoors? What did you use?
Thanks

[Mel Fulks]

Have not glued it, but have seen a couple of attempts that did not work. I think it's all just air dried and shrinks . It's interesting stuff ,I have a deck made out of it, but it moves a lot. A friend tried to make some box columns and they were a disaster. If you just need wide boards consider tongue and groove.

[Jim Matthews]

I made my garden bench of Ipe, Angelim Pedra and Teak.

The Ipe is set into recessed slots on cross-members and either pinned or through tenoned in place with Titebond III.
It's still tight, out in the elements after more than two years.

I would use Ipe again, but not Angelim Pedra.

[Peter Quinn]

I've glued it up for porch rail parts, I can't speak to the longevity as they were for customers work, but we never got any call backs. I used titebond III, I glued up right off the jointer, and used a very long clamp time and good pressure. Don't go crazy with the pressure, I've seen that recommended due to the woods hardness, an attempt to "drive the glue into the hard wood" but all it does IME is drive all the glue out of the joint and starve it. IPE isn't going to absorb the moisture in PVA glues rapidly, so the long clamp time is necessary on it and other hard exotics to let the moisture leave to the atmosphere. Moisture is a retarder and catalyst in that glue, the reaction doesn't happen until the moisture starts leaving. So clamp it and leave it over night.


I've had a piece of IPE here and there that just didn't seem to want to stay stuck, but it was appearant coming out of clamps. Epoxy or polyurethane glues should both work too, but aren't IME strictly necessary. I've seen suggestions to clean the wood with acetone before gluing, but I've also read (from a wood scientist) all that does is clean the surface on a very temporary basis and actually winds up pulling more fresh oil to the surface within minutes, its actually potentially counter productive to the process. Wipe, wait for the acetone to flash off but not so long that fresh newly thinned oils come rushing to the surface……..sounds like a strange procedure to me though some will swear by it for sure. I've never bothered.

[Chris Fournier]

I've used epoxy and polyurethane for outdoor Ipe projects. Projects are 10 years and 5 years old, both holding just fine.

[Alan Bienlein]

I just did a project in Ipe and listened to the little voice in my head that said just use epoxy and be done with it.

[Kevin Jenness]

Ipe is notoriously hard to glue and unstable, due in part to poorly controlled moisture content in available stock. Freshly machined surfaces with Titebond 2 or 3 are probably as good as epoxy , although the conventional wisdom leans toward the acetone wipe/epoxy route. For more reliability, use glue along with mechanical fasteners.

[Mark Wooden]

Devil wood

[joseph f merz]

i just went through this also .i used tb111 . did test runs with and without the wipe of acetone [or something like it] .saw no difference .i was not able to break either on the glue line .I made excusses to keep the project a couple of weeks . it kept moving on me.I made 5 14" x 24" shelves .I used an end sealer but client did not want seal on surface .The boards kept alternating cup and they were developing hairline cracks on the ends . I will ask the client how they are doing now that I have been paid .I did not make them with out giving a strong warning that I could not predict the movement .