Glue Myths Video

[John Ziebron]

For those of you who have seen this recent video I found it quite enlightening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7HxBa9WVis

[Jebediah Eckert]

Wow, interesting. Looking for the discussion to follow……

[Stan Calow]

Yes, that was very interesting. Thanks. I wonder how different the results would be with glues other than PVA?

[Mark Rainey]

Fascinating!

[Frederick Skelly]

Interesting for sure. I think I'll glue up some end grain butt joints and see how/where they break. Just to see it for myself. Thanks for posting!

[Robert Hayward]

Thank you for posting this. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and was surprised by the results.

[johnny means]

His conclusion is wrong and unsupported. He says that the end grain joint is stronger than the long grain joint. He also says that the long grain glue-ups never failed at the joint. His data tells us nothing about how much force it would take to break the long grain joint. Further more, his square pieces are not representative of real world situations.

[Frederick Skelly]

His conclusion is wrong and unsupported. He says that the end grain joint is stronger than the long grain joint. He also says that the long grain glue-ups never failed at the joint. His data tells us nothing about how much force it would take to break the long grain joint. Further more, his square pieces are not representative of real world situations.

Please understand that Im not trying to be a wise guy by asking this. I think Im just missing something..... If the end grain glue up does not fail at the joint, doesnt that mean the strength of the joint is determined by the strength of the wood? If so, why would the strength of the long grain joint be different? It did not break at the glue line - the wood broke.

[Jonathan Jung]

I am grateful not to have been taught early on that end grain is inherently weak. Done properly, I would generally agree with the video. The main problem people experience with end grain, in my opinion, is that most don't let the glue soak in then reapply, instead they just apply a "normal" amount then end up with a starved joint because the majority of the glue got pulled into the end grain.

[Doug Garson]

I am grateful not to have been taught early on that end grain is inherently weak. Done properly, I would generally agree with the video. The main problem people experience with end grain, in my opinion, is that most don't let the glue soak in then reapply, instead they just apply a "normal" amount then end up with a starved joint because the majority of the glue got pulled into the end grain.

Except that he did exactly what you said was the main problem that most people do. He didn't let the glue soak in and then reapply, he just applied a normal amount and glued it up.

[Andrew Hughes]

I can only think of one design detail that requires end grain to end grain. It’s the bottom of a table legs.
Never would I just rely glue. A dowel is what I’ve used in the past before I owned the festool domino.
Everyone should do their own testing

[andrew whicker]

Hard to argue with those results! We've been had.

Now when do we get to eat food off of coatings other than butcher block oil?

[Mike King]

Miter joints are end grain to end grain…

[johnny means]

Please understand that Im not trying to be a wise guy by asking this. I think Im just missing something..... If the end grain glue up does not fail at the joint, doesnt that mean the strength of the joint is determined by the strength of the wood? If so, why would the strength of the long grain joint be different? It did not break at the glue line - the wood broke.

The end grain joint did fail at the glue line. The long grain glue ups never failed at the glue line, so we have no idea how much force would be needed to break that joint. I suspect his experiment would have yielded different results if he had loaded the assemblies on edge in order to remove the weakness of the wood from the equation. Maybe if he had cleaved them apart.

[Jerry Wright]

In my experience, most furniture glue joints fail over time due to repeated expansion - contraction. The edge/end joints he shows will certainly fail this way. I have made countless picture frames with mitered 45 degree corners. Even before time for expansion contraction, drop it on the floor and the joint will separate at the glue line...hence the reason for splining joints. There are many reasons for end grain scarf joints and mortised face frame corners beyond endgrain joint strength. Most involve resistance to expansion/contraction shear forces.