Outside skin glue problems

[wvmedic]

Hello all, hoping I can get some help, ideas.

I've glued up my outside ¼" plywood exterior skins to my ¾" skeletons, I used Tightbond III on one panel. Let it dry with concrete blocks for weight, clamping force. I took the blocks off yesterday evening after 48 hours. I put pressure on the skin by lifting and it failed. The first panel I glued up with Tightbond II, I messed up the placement of it though. So I tried to pull it lose and I was able to do so with a little assist of a screwdriver.



Any idea as to what I'm doing wrong or is there another option for gluing up the panels? I’ve considered re-gluing the second panel and using ¼ crown staples to attach the skin. I am using fiberglass and epoxy to coat the exterior prior to paint.

I have to redo the first wall so I would apricate any help I can get.



Thank you, Jeff

[bdosborn]

TiteBond III will adhere down to 47*......no lower.

A general rule of thumb is glue has a shelf life of 1 year, but it certainly can go longer (my guess is at least another 6 months+) if kept inside your home. When you buy a bottle of glue write the mm/yy on the bottle with a Sharpie.
Bruce

[Squigie]

Is everything clean?
Is there finish or sealer on the pieces?

[wvmedic]

My apologies, the glue is straight off the shelf from the store, working temp of 80 f give or take. Everything was clean bare wood.



Thank you, Jeff

[Pmullen503]

First question is did the glue fail or the wood? I assume it was the glue from your description.

I f that's the case, the only other thing I can think of is glue starvation, not enough glue to both soak into the wood and have enough left in the joint to to glue the two together. A good wood glue bond with have some squeeze out around the edges.

[wvmedic]

Pmullen503, it was a glue failure. It could have been that we didn't have it saturated enough, that is just a guess though. I do know that even with two of us applying the glue it was hard to keep it from drying. We are laminating a 4x10 sheet.



Thank you, Jeff

[bdosborn]

The assembly time for Titebond III is pretty short, 8-10 minutes at 70F. Titebond II has a longer working time of 10-15 minutes at 70F. There is a longer work time version, Titebond Extend, that might be the ticket.

Bruce

[wvmedic]

bdosborn, I'll have to check on that, thank you.

Jeff

[wvmedic]

Looks like Tightbond II extended has a 15 minute working time, it also says a total assembly time off 20-25 minutes.

Thank you, Jeff

[wvmedic]

I ordered the extended Tightbond II, should be here by Friday. I'll report back on how to goes.

Jeff

[Tom&Shelly]

TiteBond III will adhere down to 47*......no lower.

A general rule of thumb is glue has a shelf life of 1 year, but it certainly can go longer (my guess is at least another 6 months+) if kept inside your home. When you buy a bottle of glue write the mm/yy on the bottle with a Sharpie.
Bruce

I realize that the thread has moved on, but, since I often use wood glues well beyond a year old, this got me curious. A year is a good rule of thumb, but from the Titebond FAQ site:

"In reality, as long as products like Titebond Original, Titebond II and Titebond III remain fluid, without a drastic change in appearance, they will continue to perform as intended."

I've actually successfully used the last half of the last gallon of Titebond III that we bought for the teardrop for the past three years. Granted, not for anything as critical as the tear. It held the bookshelves together that I made this Winter, and it seems to hold fine on the doll house furniture I'm currently building.

Kept it in our basement at about 56 degrees in winter, probably low 70's in summer. I suspect freezing would kill it.

If I start any important projects that depend on the glue joints for life, safety (of more than dolls), or sanity, I'll buy more, but right now, it seems to hold well.

Tom

[Squigie]

My current stock of TBII was purchased when I built my son's bed. I think he was 4. He's 11 now.
Doing fine.
But it has also been stored in a dark corner of the climate-controlled basement and I have to peel the skin off the top when I use it.

[wvmedic]

Just wanted to update incase it might help others who are new as I am. I've yet to try the extended Tightbond II as I was just able to pick up my plywood so I can redo the wall I messed up on. My Wife and I did however use some regular Tightbond II and III to re-glue the skin on the one wall with success. It would appear as was mentioned that I didn't dump, I say dump because it is what I did this round. I dumped a good amount of glue on the skeleton and spread it around with a roller, the was a sufficient amount of glue this time around to bond as it should have. I really didn't think that I was being stingy with the glue on the first attempt, we both poured a good amount of glue in the small roller trays and rolled it on. There were spots that were trying to dry before we got it all wetted out though and we re-applied in those spots. This time I just dumped the glue on and spread it. Thankfully that worked.

I will still report back on the extended as to how it goes though.

Thank you all for giving advice and ideas.

Jeff

[Tom&Shelly]

I actually never rolled on TB III. I always just ran it along the surface, leaving only an inch or so between the bead. Never had a problem with it drying before assembling the pieces and clamping (perhaps 5 minutes at most between starting and assembly. When necessary, Shelly helped.

Tom

[wvmedic]

Glued up the exterior skin on the second side today. The extended gave me plenty of time to get it glued up. We
will see how well it bonds. This panel is definitely not glue starved.

Jeff