white glue

[Denny Davis]

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Hello all, i was wondering if someone could tell me what is white glue. I'm asking because I have some punky wood and I've seen where people
use this mixed with water to soak the wood blanks. Is this glue actually Elmers white glue? Do you how long to soak and how long to dry?
i realize it depends on size of blank. any help is appreciated
Thank you Denny Davis

[Don Orr]

My vague recollection is that you can use any standard white glue, such as Elmer's, and dilute it 50/50 with water and let it soak in and dry and then turn it as usual. Not sure how big of a piece this would work on or drying time, but it could take a while for it to dry-more than overnight. I would try soaking in as much as it will take up and see what happens. In my opinion, punky wood is not worth the effort. Spalted with some small punky areas might work but a lot of punk is not good.

Basic wood glues are emulsions of plastic resins in water that coalecse as the water evaporates.

[George Overpeck]

Here's my experience - I tried doing some soaking with 50/50 water, then 50/50 with alcohol just to see if I could get better results. I never got the glue to penetrate very far. Side by side tests with these two mixes had about the same penetration, less than 1/8 inch. So, if your intention is to rough, soak, then do a finish cut it's going to have to be uniformly whisper thin. My guess is that even if you used a vacuum chamber the fibres would strain out the polyvinyl acetate in the glue and you only get penetration with the solvent.

You've got a serious time commitment with the soaking or the vacuuming.

My experience is very similar with shellac regarding penetration, although it's fast drying makes it useful to apply on the lathe, turn and re-apply if needed.

Everyone says to leave bad wood alone, but it's difficult to come up with criteria for what makes wood bad. How soft, how much of the wood, how worth it is it to fight for results. I'm way down the rabbit hole on turning iffy wood and find that it's more useful to modify cutting techniques than to spend too much time with treatments. Each year I find that I can turn wood that I would have thrown away a year before.

Best tip - when you identify your trouble area, recognize that your tearout and fracturing is penetrating far below the surface, perhaps a quarter inch. A standard cut, even with the sharpest tool, will continue to strain the wood along the existing fracture lines. Start shear scraping in whisper thin cuts far outside of your intended surface, sharpen constantly, and continue far through where you perceive the tearout to have ended.