Marty Schlosser
06-19-2007, 9:02 AM
A studio furniture designer and maker who I know and highly respect uses yellow glue for most glue-ups... but not for edge glueing panels, nor for gluing up laminations thicker than 1/4". For those applications he uses WEST System epoxy, and for panel glue-ups, also uses biscuits which he feels helps keep things together. His reasoning is that yellow glues allow creep, which on panels and those laminations, will show up as a slight rise along the line where the boards come together, a few months to a year from the time they're glued up. It's as though the boards seasonal swelling and contraction caused the finish to rise an almost imperceptible amount, right along the joint.
Once I had that discussion with my associate, I went home and looked carefully at the pieces of furniture I had made, some going back 30 years. Sure enough, I noticed that virtually all of them have experienced that same characteristic. Although there was no indication at all of glue failure on any of them, that ridge was there. I have since followed his lead and now glue up my panels using WEST System epoxy.
The reason for this post, is that in Fine Woodworking's latest issue, a test of glues showed that yellow glue made stronger joints than epoxy did. It didn't say anything about creep, however. As such, I'd be interested in hearing from others, as to what glues they use for panel glue-ups and how things have stood up over the years.
Cheers,
Marty
Once I had that discussion with my associate, I went home and looked carefully at the pieces of furniture I had made, some going back 30 years. Sure enough, I noticed that virtually all of them have experienced that same characteristic. Although there was no indication at all of glue failure on any of them, that ridge was there. I have since followed his lead and now glue up my panels using WEST System epoxy.
The reason for this post, is that in Fine Woodworking's latest issue, a test of glues showed that yellow glue made stronger joints than epoxy did. It didn't say anything about creep, however. As such, I'd be interested in hearing from others, as to what glues they use for panel glue-ups and how things have stood up over the years.
Cheers,
Marty