Aceton and glue joints

[Dietrich Trenner]

Watched a video where a person put Aceton on a Cocobolo joint before yellow glue saying the wood was too oily. Is that necessary, how about other woods?

DKT

[Roger Newby]

Teak is very oily and should be wiped down with acetone as well. Seems like all the expensive woods need this treatment so it is not a problem for me.

[glenn bradley]

Preparing the surfaces to accept the adhesive is good practice. Usually on PVA you will see something like "Surfaces must be clean and dry". The oils in some woods would certainly violate this state. I have never bothered to pre-clean walnut although I have read that some do. Cherry, oaks, maples and other common domestics have never gotten special treatment out of me either. Goncals Alves is oily and waxy and I do wipe it with naphtha (acetone is fine, many evaporative cleaners will do). Bacote and some rosewoods are also on my list of woods getting a bit of attention before gluing. Generally I use exotics for detail work and not structural work but, epoxy or PVA, I still give them a quick wipe before gluing. YMMV.

[Alan Schwabacher]

Fine Woodworking did a test a while back, and found that wiping with acetone and letting it dry just before gluing made a bit of difference to the strength of the bond between oily woods. But this was important only if the gluing surface was not freshly sanded, and sanding helped much more than did wiping with acetone. In other words, letting glue surfaces stand for a long time before gluing is a problem that can be ameliorated a bit by wiping with acetone. This part I may not be remembering right, but I think that some glues like epoxy don't need the pretreatment.