Do you have any chairs, tables, or other wooden furniture that are a little wobbly due to the glue drying out? Here’s how you can tighten things up. First, disassemble the joined pieces. Clean off all of the old glue and dirt with warm vinegar. Rinse with clean water, and let everything dry completely. Use yellow carpenters glue to reassemble all the pieces back together.
One problem in using older-style pegboard hooks is that they tend to pull out when the tools are removed. One way you can solve the problem is to insert them into the pegboard and use a hot glue gun to fasten them in place. In a minute or so the hooks will be fixed in place, although you will be able to wrestle them loose whenever you want to rearrange your tool storage. Another solution is to buy newer-style hooks that will lock in place with just the turn of a screwdriver.
Glue will soak more into the end grain of wood and potentially result in starved glue joints. To help prevent this, you can “size” any end grain to be glued with a mixture of glue diluted with water. Dilute just so that when it is applied, glue drops don’t form at the lower edges of the wood. Another method, somewhat less effective, is to coat the end grain with full strength glue, allow it to dry 5 to 10 minutes, then re-coat with glue and assemble.
When clamping long or wide panels with bar clamps, a dowel inserted crosswise between the jaws of the bar clamps and the wood will help center the pressure and keep it uniform. Use dowels about as thick as the thickness of the wood you are gluing up.
If you are gluing veneer to a wood surface, you can use an old clothes iron to help. First use a sponge to wet the face of the veneer so that it won’t curl. Next, apply a thin film of glue to both the surface and the underside of the veneer. Then, when the veneer is dry to the touch, use the clothes iron at a high setting to secure the veneer in place.
Whenever you are glueing glass you must consider the visibility of the adhesive. If the glass is translucent, you will want a glue that dries as clear as possible. Before glueing any glass bond be sure that the glass is clean, free of any oil (even from your fingers) and dry.
Fingerjointing is a process in which short pieces of high grade wood are end glued together to make long lengths of stock. The advantages to this process are cost and availability of long lengths. Fingerjointed wood is used in a variety of applications including interior and exterior trim, moldings, and siding materials. In exterior applications, its one drawback is the way in which the different grains of the various pieces react to weather exposure. The individual pieces may telegraph their differences through the finish coat of paint giving a somewhat uneven or checkerboard appearance over time. Fingerjointing is a wonderful recycler of wood products if you give thought to where it can work best for you.
Glue will soak more into the end grain of wood and can potentially result in starved glue joints. To help prevent this, you can “size” any end grain to be glued with a mixture of glue diluted with water. Dilute just so that when it is applied, glue drops don’t form at the lower edges of the wood. Another method, somewhat less effective, is to coat the end grain with full-strength glue, allow it to dry 5 to 10 minutes, then re-coat with glue and assemble.
Whenever you are gluing metal it’s a good idea to clean it first with steel wool or sandpaper. (Rust never sleeps.)
Old bicycle innertubes that are cut into long, narrow strips can make excellent clamps for repairing broken wooden furniture. After gluing a fractured joint, the rubber strips can be tightly stretched around the repair area to hold pieces in place while the glue is drying.
