Longer open time glue needed

[Joe Jensen]

I have almost always used yellow woodworking glue, elmers mainly. I live in AZ, and 99% of the time this works perfectly. Short open time, fast grab, less time in the clamps. However, I have a series of 13 book cases to assemble and I'm using Domino tenons. I'll also be working alone, so I need more open time. At least 30 minutes in AZ. By comparison, I get like 5-10 minutes with yellow carpenters glue.

I don't want to have to clamp overnight. Ideally I'd like a yellow glue with 3-4X the time before it grabs. Recommendations?...joe

[Lee Schierer]

I'm not sure they make a yellow (PVA) glue that will stay open that long unless you have heavy pools of it on the surface. Most urethane glues will set open for that long, but they have the foaming side effect that can be a bother. Epoxies will stay open for longer periods but then the cure time is long too.

Perhaps you can re-look at your assembly and find ways to to subassemblies, perhaps with a few jigs that will make the need for open time less demanding.

[Todd Burch]

Use Elmers white glue. It's not just for kids!

Todd

[Steven Herbin]

Hi-

Titebond has a line of glues called "Extend." It's available in original and II varieties. I am now using it to assemble dovetails. I learned this from Kelly Mehler. I'm not sure it will give 30 minutes, but it is much longer than the regular yellow glues -- it's also much lighter in color.

--Steve.

[Bob Childress]

Yeah Joe, the Titebond Extend gives you 15-20 minutes or so, depending on the weather. For case work using a lot of Dominoes, sometimes I have clamped the shelves to one side for 30 minutes and then glued the other side piece on. :)

[Jamie Buxton]

I've looked for years for a glue like you describe, and haven't found it. I've tried the "long-open" PVAs, like Titebond Extend. It seemed to be mostly a watery version of regular PVA, and didn't seem to give me much more open time. The only real longer open time glues I've found are urea-formaldehyde and epoxy. They can give you hours of working time. A drawback, of course, is that you have to mix two components.

[Brian Weick]

Tightbond III has an extended work time and will do the trick for you - I use that on large staved columns that need more time to assemble.
Brian:)

[Carroll Courtney]

Like Todd said,use the white glue.I have used it for doing veneer work and it gives at lease 20mins or so if its cool where your at.

[Todd Bin]

If you need long open times then use Plastic Resin Glue sometimes called Urea Formaldehyde Glue. It will give you 30 to 45 minutes of open time. The drawback is you have to leave the work in clamps for 16 hours and the glue won't be fully cured for 24 hours. Everything has a price. Here is a link to an article on plastic resin glue.

http://www.djmarks.com/pdf/ureaglue.pdf

[Bill Jepson]

If you need long open times then use Plastic Resin Glue sometimes called Urea Formaldehyde Glue. It will give you 30 to 45 minutes of open time. The drawback is you have to leave the work in clamps for 16 hours and the glue won't be fully cured for 24 hours. Everything has a price. Here is a link to an article on plastic resin glue.

http://www.djmarks.com/pdf/ureaglue.pdf

An excellent article from David Marks. David taught a laminating class at a local Woodcraft franchise. (Dublin Ca) He insisted that they bring in some stock of the plastic resin glue for the class. Something to mention is that these glues were used in wooden aircraft work, along with some other fume curing glues that simply can't lose strength when in use. Worth taking note.
Bill

[Dave Lehnert]

Like the others said use regular Elmer’s white glue but be sure to get the “Glue all “that has the med blue label. Do not use the Elmer’s school glue.

http://www.elmers.com/homerepair/product_page.asp?pCode=E383

[Gary Keedwell]

Like the others said use regular Elmer’s white glue but be sure to get the “Glue all “that has the med blue label. Do not use the Elmer’s school glue.

http://www.elmers.com/homerepair/product_page.asp?pCode=E383
Elmer's school glue used to taste good:eek:

Gary

[Bob Childress]

Elmer's school glue used to taste good:eek:

Gary

It still tastes good. DAMHIKT. :D:D

[Mike Elo]

Woodworking Tip #61 -- Slow Setting Glue
Good morning,
Yellow woodworkers glue is terrific stuff. But it's not always the best
choice in every gluing situation. Sometimes you need more time to apply
glue and assemble all the parts than the few minutes yellow glue gives you.
There are a several things you can do in this kind of situation. Whenever
we have problems getting a complicated glue job together quickly, we
sometimes switch from yellow woodworkers glue (like Titebond or Elmer's
Carpenters' glue) to a white all-purpose glue (such as Elmer's Glue-All).
Another option is to use a hide glue or a powdered plastic
(urea-formaldehyde) resin glue. Both of these glues set up slower than
yellow glue and are just as strong. (You can find them at most hardware
stores and in many woodworking mail order catalogs.)
Garrett Wade <http://www.garrettwade.com/ (http://www.garrettwade.com/)> sells a "Slo-Set" glue in their
catalog that gives you more working time (20-30 minutes), but still
achieves 75% of its strength after clamping for 30 minutes.
The last option is one of the easiest. You can thin Titebond yellow glue
with about 5% water (one part water to twenty parts glue). One of the
researchers at Franklin Industries (manufacturer of Titebond) told us that
this will slow the set time about 50%. And he said that it won't have any
significant effect on the strength of the glue joint as long as you don't
mix in more than 5% water.
To test this, we glued up three sets of boards. The first set didn't have
any water mixed in with the glue. The second set had 5% water, and the
third set had 10% water. We didn't stick the boards together right away,
but let them sit open.
As expected, the first boards got tacky within minutes. The second set took
longer. And the glue on the third set of boards was too thin and runny.
After the glue joints were put together and dry, we broke the joints apart.
The 10% boards broke apart at the glue line -- not a good sign. But the
other two sets pulled splinters from both sides of the glue line. That's
the sign of a good glue joint -- one where the glue is stronger than the
surrounding wood fibers.

[Noah Levy]

The other night I laminated 5 sets of 2x4's for a wood rack. I used Titebond III thined with a little water (didn't bother to measure precisely) so I could easily spread it out along the 8' 2x4 and get it clamped up before it got absorbed/dried out. It worked fine. I got the feeling TB III has a lot of solids and works well when thinned.

[Joe Jensen]

Thanks all. I'll try thinning yellow first as a test since i have it around. If that works I'll buy some titebound and use that thinned. Since I have some many to glue up, I hate to leave them in clamps for 16 hours.

But, that might be an excuse to buy a ton more clamps :D