Brazilian Cherry joints

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I am building a table using Brazilian Cherry. The legs are attached with aprons using M-T joints and Titebond III glue. I washed the joints with Acetone before gluing them, yet two of the joints cam apart. Any ideas are gratefully accepted, thank you.

DKT
 
I am building a table using Brazilian Cherry. The legs are attached with aprons using M-T joints and Titebond III glue. I washed the joints with Acetone before gluing them, yet two of the joints cam apart. Any ideas are gratefully accepted, thank you.

DKT

:eek: Bad news for me! I recently built 2 dining tables from this stuff and NEVER cleaned a joint prior to gluing. Now I'll stay awake every night expecting a call from a customer with a pile of boards in their dining room!:bang::thud:
Seriously, the tables have been in use for a year now and I've not hears any complaints. Lots of M&T joints and clued up panels, no failures. I'm assuming your joinery was snug. How old was the glue?
 
I've used a fair amount of Brazilian cherry (jatoba) in cutting boards glued with Titebond II, and haven't had any failures that I know of. Assuming you have decent-fitting joints, I'd suspect you had an old (or otherwise bad) batch of glue.
 
I have used Jatoba on cutting boards, and segmented pepper mills and have not had any failures either. I did scuff the joints for the mills a little since they looked polished after being cut, but they have all held.
 
I'd vote for joints that are either too loose or too tight. If too tight, they can scrape off the glue to the point of being useless. If too loose, the glue isn't designed to be gap-filling. Shoot for barely a slip fit, not a piston fit.
 
I've also seen mixed reports on pre-cleaning. Some people saw you must and some claims that it increases failure if you do (I don't have a horse in that race but I don't bother even with oily woods).

If nothing else acetone is listed as a way to break titebond glue joints: http://www.titebond.com/frequently_asked_questions.aspx "For Titebond Instant Bond glues, placing a few drops of acetone on the joint may cause the joint to loosen after absorption." So I'd imagine if you have any left you've increased your odds of glue failure.

I'd agree that most likely there was something unhappy with the glue/joint but I wouldn't rule out there having been a bit of acetone left in the wood creeping out to ruin your evening later on.
 
I'm very suspicious of the use of Acetone to clean the wood prior to gluing. Acetone is a very strong industrial rated solvent & will attack the natural oils in wood & other products, as well as affecting the adhesion properties of the Titebond glue. Any solvent that is recommended for cleaning residual adhesive is not what I would use for prepping the wood prior to gluing. I would prefer the use of Isopropyl Alcohol to clean prior to gluing. It is much milder and evaporates quickly & cleanly. If you prefer to use Acetone, I might suggest using the Isopropyl afterwards to remove the Acetone.
 
Your phrase, "washed the joints with acetone" suggest a large volume of the solvent. On the rare occasions I clean the oil from wood before gluing it is more like "wipe with a dampened rag, and be sure the residue is gone before gluing.
 
Your phrase, "washed the joints with acetone" suggest a large volume of the solvent. On the rare occasions I clean the oil from wood before gluing it is more like "wipe with a dampened rag, and be sure the residue is gone before gluing.

I should have used the word "wipe" rather than "washed". Anyway I was able to take the failed joints apart (2) and it appeared they were starved of glue. The tenon - mortise fit was very tight, I needed pipe clamps and a lot of force to press them together, so the suggestion of tight fit and starved glue made sense. I reglued the joints using Gorilla glue and also added additional Brazilian Cherry blocks to hold all legs tightly. Things are looking really good. Thanks for all the replies.

DKT
 
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