Regluing a pastry board

[Alex Zeller]

The wife has a pastry board she has sentimental attachment to that the glue isn't holding. Personally I would just make a new one since it's a basic flat rectangle shape. But sometimes the easy way isn't what the wife wants. I was able to break apart all but a couple of the glue joints with little effort. I tried telling her that I needed to a Domino but $1200 for a $25 board was a little too much of a stretch. But I do have a Wolfcraft dowel jig (the one where you clamp two boards together) that should work. I was thinking that if I cleaned the board edges up on the jointer by taking 1/64" off and then used 4 dowels per edge it should work.

I normally use Titebond II (currently all I have in the shop at the moment) but could get some III. I could use epoxy but would rather not. It sees very little water. The board itself is unfinished wood, possibly maple. Will taking such a light pass be enough to get to the pores in the wood to get a good bond or should I take more off? I've included a picture of one of the edges (not sure if it'll help).
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[roger wiegand]

Skip the dowels, biscuits and dominos, they add nothing to the structure. They are fine if you need an aid to alignment or if you really need a new tool. A few grains of sand or salt in the joint will also keep them from sliding around when you glue up. Split or saw the boards apart, lightly joint, and re-glue and you should be good for another 50 years at least. TBII is great for this.

[John TenEyck]

If you can see fresh wood then you've jointed enough for the new glue to work. You don't need Dominos, dowels, or any alignment aids. Use your fingers to determine if the joints meet properly and a mallet to adjust the joints until they do. You could make some cauls to hold the boards in alignment, if you'd like.

John

[Cameron Wood]

I disagree that dowels add nothing to the structure. If the glue joints fail again, which is very possible IME,
the dowels will keep things together.

This is a stool that I made in the '80s, with the top from a cutting board that I made in shop class in the '60s.
The cutting board joints were failing, but I ran some long-ish dowels in from the sides, and it is still in use, in spite of the the loose joints.

Other cutting boards that I have reglued have not lasted, however, so if you fix this one I would add a disclaimer.

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[Rob Luter]

I've used a skewed edge trimming plane as a final step to dress an edge for gluing. It's easy to peel back a few thousands of an inch and keep things square. If the surface is already flat you don't even need to use a jointer.

I've used tiny brads to keep things aligned. Tap them into the edge at intervals and then cut them off nearly flush with a set of diagonal cutting pliers. The little exposed spur make a great grippers.

[John TenEyck]

I disagree that dowels add nothing to the structure. If the glue joints fail again, which is very possible IME,
the dowels will keep things together.

This is a stool that I made in the '80s, with the top from a cutting board that I made in shop class in the '60s.
The cutting board joints were failing, but I ran some long-ish dowels in from the sides, and it is still in use, in spite of the the loose joints.

Other cutting boards that I have reglued have not lasted, however, so if you fix this one I would add a disclaimer.

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Adding dowels may keep the parts from falling apart if the glue joint fails but what have you gained other than keeping all the parts sort of together? Your stool is another animal. In that case, you want the overall structure to stay together even if the glue joints fail, as a safety measure. Failed glue joints in a cutting board, however, pretty much means it's useless for its intended function.

John

[Edwin Santos]

I believe dowels, dominos and biscuits all add strength insofar as they increase the glue surface area.
However, I agree with the advice to skip them because the additional strength is not necessary in a long grain to long grain joint like this.
If you need help keeping the glue up flat, then consider using cauls with a cambered edge which you can make yourself inexpensively.

You didn't mention how old the pastry board was but there's a good possibility TBII will be far superior to what was used before and it should be durable enough.

[Alex Zeller]

The board is maybe 20 years old, so it should have been made with modern glue. My guess is it was made in China with low quality glue designed to last a couple years. I cleaned up the edges last night. While doing so it looks like the boards might have moved some that put stress on the glue joints. Nothing a quality glue wouldn't easily handle.

The idea of using dowels was to help strengthen the joints just in case there's still some old glue that was deeper than I thought. Also some of her recipes use butter, Crisco, or oils. You can see the surface has oil that has soaked in. It doesn't look like there's any where the glue failed but it's possible. If I was to remake it I probably would do sliding dovetail joints (just because I like the look and they will last for several lifetimes) but being made from narrow boards and not wanting to make it any narrower I'm trying to leave as much material as possible.

I don't mind spending a little extra time adding dowels so if it fails I can honestly say "I tried my best. Now let me make you one my way". But if they aren't going to help I'll skip them.

[Warren Lake]

id use lamelloes. Fast simple and easy. Pastry boards typically have a cross grain piece to stop the board around the counter top in use. One bottom front to rest on the counter and one back facing up so they are used on either side. Same time the boards need to be able to move.