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.
You can cut the cost of wood glue for workshop projects significantly by buying your glue in 1-qt. or larger containers. To make it convenient to use, transfer the glue as you need it from the large bottle to your own squeeze bottles or a glue pot.
Styrofoam is a plastic that has been whipped up like a milkshake and then cured that way. That’s what makes it light. Like plastic, there are many different formulas for styrofoam. They may contain any combination of styrene, urethane, neoprene or vinyl. For this reason choosing the correct adhesive is not easy. For our tests we used polystyrene which is a composition of styrene, chlorodifluoroethane and ethyl chloride, for those of you who care. The most important things to remember when choosing an adhesive for styrofoam are:
– Never use an adhesive that contains a solvent. It will erode the styrofoam releasing all sorts of toxic fumes.
– Choose adhesives that are suited for not porous materials (remember styrofoams are plastics and plastics are non-porous).
– Never use hot glue directly on to styrofoam. There are some cases when hot glue is an appropriate adhesive, but it should be applied to the material you are bonding the styrofoam to and left to cool a few seconds before contacting the styrofoam. The glue will get lost in the hole that it has burned, and burning plastics releases toxic fumes.
– Remember, a glue is only as strong as the weakest material in the union. Styrofoam is easily broken and has very little tensile strength. In our tests, if the styrofoam broke before the bond, the glue was considered strong enough.
Getting black glue lines on projects? Metal containers like coffee cans can cause this problem, which occurs more often with white glue than with yellow glue. Glues with a pH lower than 7 can absorb iron from the metal, and the dissolved iron can react with certain colored woods to leave black glue lines. Use plastic containers instead.
One way to fix a loose screw in wood is to remove it and then insert toothpicks or burned wooden matches with a coating of wood glue into the hole. Allow the glue to cure, then cut flush and re-drive the screw. You can also insert a plastic wall anchor into the screw hole. When you put the screw back in, it will expand the anchor and will hold solidly.
