Titebond II by the gallon

[tim walker]

PSA - Many of you probably already know this. Always looking for a deal. Rockler is normally $24.99 for the one gallon size plus shipping if you dont buy the minimum amount, but it is on sale for $19.99. Woodcraft is $24.50. Just out of curiosity, I checked Lowes and HD. $17.98 and $17.97 respectively. Just shows online is not always cheapest or convenient. AMZ was $27.52

[Zachary Hoyt]

I only buy Titebond 1 but I get it from my local Ace hardware, it's pretty cheap by the gallon and I go through one or two a year. It's nice to keep things local, but most of what else I need is not available other than by mail order.

[Mark Bolton]

We pay around 16.75 a gallon landed to the door, but same with Zach, its TBI. TBII has gone into stupid price even in 5's from many places. I never use TBII unless essential. I havent even looked at TBIII but Ill bet its gone even more stupid. Covid+cash profits for a lot of these items.

[Bernie Kopfer]

We pay around 16.75 a gallon landed to the door, but same with Zach, its TBI. TBII has gone into stupid price even in 5's from many places. I never use TBII unless essential. I havent even looked at TBIII but Ill bet its gone even more stupid. Covid+cash profits for a lot of these items.
You have my curiosity up. Why do you say the price is “stupid”?

[Mark Bolton]

Why do you say the price is “stupid”?

Because for whatever reason (likely no supply side issues but moreso nutty consumer demand and understandably profit grabbing) TBII, and likely III, have gone up for no real reason other than demand. Demand for TBI likely stays pretty static because of bulk users. But the cost to produce TBII has likely not changed at all but there is just more money to grab. Makes total sense from an profiteering standpoint, maybe not so much from a patriotic stand point.

[Mel Fulks]

"No reason other than demand" That is a pretty good reason and half of that "supply and demand " thing ; which is the
LAW ! And sometimes increased demand means they have to buy new stuff. I mean at least one of the "soft drinks"
started out 5 cents a cup ....then the price of cups went crazy !!

[Mark Bolton]

Its not the law Mel, its your accepted generational programing. Like finding a novel product or idea and getting a patent and then sending your manufacturing to China desecrating another society as well as your own because the society in which you reside painfully learned thise miserable lesson just for the sake of l sheer personal greed.

There may be a different model of fair business practice and furthermore an overwhelming sense of true patriotism that as a nation gets us to a slightly better station than the sharktank philosophy of greed over all else.

A lot of people did a lot of good for this nation after WWII with very little greed factor but now its a slash and burn greed fest.

To each their own.

[Mel Fulks]

After WW2 there was a lot of ambition and opportunity. The 'mercans who won the war were not shy or ashamed about
going after it. And in doing so they improved the world and made the money they wanted ,and the money needed to
rebuild the cities of our vanquished enemies. I guess there can be brutal ambition. Some would describe Mr. Gates as
being an example in his early days.....but money is what makes him a well known good guy.

[Dave Lehnert]

Years ago when I started woodworking, friends would give me gallon jugs of wood glue for Christmas/ Birthdays. It just went bad. Could not use that much.
As a hobbyist I don't go though a lot of glue. I buy small bottles. Rather have fresh glue than save a few bucks.

[Andrew Seemann]

PSA - Many of you probably already know this. Always looking for a deal. Rockler is normally $24.99 for the one gallon size plus shipping if you dont buy the minimum amount, but it is on sale for $19.99. Woodcraft is $24.50. Just out of curiosity, I checked Lowes and HD. $17.98 and $17.97 respectively. Just shows online is not always cheapest or convenient. AMZ was $27.52

Also a PSA, if you buy in person, the jugs (and squeeze bottles) of glue at HD, Lowes, & Menards, tend to move off the shelf quicker than Rockler, Woodcraft, & the local hardware store, so their stock tends to be fresher.

I usually buy in person so I can see the date code and condition of the glue and bottle. Also, in winter, I don't trust online glue to not have frozen at some point in transit.

[Mark Bolton]

Years ago when I started woodworking, friends would give me gallon jugs of wood glue for Christmas/ Birthdays. It just went bad. Could not use that much.
As a hobbyist I don't go though a lot of glue. I buy small bottles. Rather have fresh glue than save a few bucks.

Other than TBIII and PU I've never had a bottle of glue sealed up "go bad". It would take years. Its not milk where you need to check the "best if consumed by" date. If woodworking were that difficult and that critical it would not be a hobby since the 60's and earlier.

If anything glue lasts longer than ever.

[Alex Zeller]

Just because demand has gone up doesn't mean Franklin International has the ability to make more Titebond than they had last year. Companies have come to realize that extra capacity when it comes to manufacturing is very costly. It requires extra manufacturing floor space, more employees, and more storage space. Also if demand slows you are stuck with good product sitting on a shelf going bad. This is how all businesses have either switched to or will be switching to.

Most credit goes to Toyota and their lean manufacturing method. I've actually been to a class on the subject and it's quite interesting. The concept is "just in time". You produce just enough so you don't run out of a product and loose sales but at the same time don't produce too much and risk having to choose between shutting down a manufacturing line or flooding the market. It's basically a juggling act.

[Andrew Seemann]

Most credit goes to Toyota and their lean manufacturing method. I've actually been to a class on the subject and it's quite interesting. The concept is "just in time". You produce just enough so you don't run out of a product and loose sales but at the same time don't produce too much and risk having to choose between shutting down a manufacturing line or flooding the market. It's basically a juggling act.

Just-in-time works great, until your supply chain gets unreliable, like today. You suddenly can't produce sanitizer bottles because you can't get one part of the squirt pump. Your factory can make windows, but your screen supplier is down. You don't stock masks at the hospital because it is cheaper to just get regular shipments in each week, until you and everyone else suddenly can't get any from anywhere.

Excess inventory is bad and expensive to carry, but so is being one day (and one part) away from having to shut everything down.



As far as excess demand goes, as Alex notes, some things just can't be scaled up. My mother's side of the family is in the plant business, and demand this spring was the highest it had ever been in 80 years. Fully knowing that demand was going to be sky high based on what what we were hearing from wholesalers in the South, we were able to up production maybe 10% and order maybe an extra 5%, but that was all. We had no more space (and couldn't create more in winter) and could not get anymore orders locked in.

The problem is that the decisions on how much product got created at the seed and stock link in the chain were all made in summer of 2019, long before anybody in Wuhan even sneezed. No matter how much demand existed in spring of 2020, there was only a certain amount of seed and plant stock available, and creating more takes time and certain growing conditions and nothing can change that. And that is before covid disruptions like shutdowns and transportation delays.


Right now anyone can get into the same bind, missing one critical ingredient, step, or partner. Certain types of pop (soda to you non-Minnesota people) were unavailable for months due to a shortage of cans. Everywhere you go, you see missing products, sometimes just one variation, sometimes a whole catoegry, all due to disruptions in supply chains or demand that just can't be supplied from existing structures. Those people that bought all the tomato plants in spring, now can't find mason jars and lids to can them. As George Carlin said "Supply lines are getting longer and harder to maintain" :)

[Rob Luter]

I made the mistake of buying a gallon of Titebond about 12 years ago. I had a couple big projects and overestimated what I'd need. I've been using it to refill my small bottles all these years. I keep it in a cool, dark location. It works just as well as it ever has.

[Matt Day]

Years ago when I started woodworking, friends would give me gallon jugs of wood glue for Christmas/ Birthdays. It just went bad. Could not use that much.
As a hobbyist I don't go though a lot of glue. I buy small bottles. Rather have fresh glue than save a few bucks.

100% agree. Heck the small bottles go bad on me sometimes, especially when I get caught up in a couple machine restorations instead of furniture projects. I’d never buy a gallon as it would go to waste. As much as I like to buy in bulk and save, this isn’t a place to do it for me.

[Rob Sack]

According to the folks at Titebond, their glue has a shelf life of around one year, give or take. While we go through a lot of glue in the shop, I usually date each bottle with a Sharpie just to be sure. Even with a price increase, the cost of glue is pretty insignificant. The possibility of glue failure, no matter how remote, could be extremely costly.

[Frank Pratt]

The 1 year shelf life has to be a worst case scenario. I buy it by the gallon & usually use that up in a couple of years, but have had it go over 5 years. It's stored in a cool, dry, dark location where the temperature stays pretty constant.

I did have the last 1/4 of a gallon of Titebond Extend go bad after about 4 years though.

If the stuff is bad, you know by looking at it. It the glue looks the right consistency & hasn't separated or gone clumpy, it's still good.

[Mark Bolton]

If your really worried about it buy a can of bloxygen (sp) or use Argon. If we have anything from waterborne finishes or latex paint that is going to sit around for a while I just take it over to the mig bottle and top it off with straight argon and seal the lid on. No disagreement about titebond's "shelf life" but I take that with a grain of salt. The more that winds up in the trash "out of date" is the more they sell. If you go through a squeeze bottle or two a year sure, buying gallons is a bit over the top but to be sorting through bottles like your looking for the milk in the grocery with the latest date code is a bit over the top in my opinion.