Tightbond, or any glue for that matter then sand?

Brian Altop

Member
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274
Location
Tacoma, WA
The bottle says to clamp for 30min then do not stress for 24 hours depending on temp, humidity and how the planets are aligned.

I am finishing up the Jatoba cabinets I started a while ago...nuff said there.:D

Is sanding the faces after they come out of the clamps with a RO sander 'stressing' the glue joints or is that fine to do?

Thanks!
 
you can take off the big stuff, but the glue is going to "telescope" from the joint for a while to come. Be sure to take off any runs, drips, squeeze-out before it hardens, though. Besides, Titebond dries by moisture evaporation, and as it dries it forms a skim coat that prevents anything under that coat from drying. So, if the glue isn't completely dry all the way to the wood, you're just going to muck up your sandpaper.

By stressing the joint, I think they're talking about trying to pry it apart. I routinely work on the glued pieces after 45-60 mins.
 
I wouldn't sand it that quickly not because of stressing the joints but because you introduced moisture at the joint and the wood has swollen slightly. If you sand now to make it flush in about a day or two the wood will shrink and you will have a slight divot. I have worked panels as quickly as twenty minutes after first clamping them up as far as cutting to size and raising them on the router table.
 
My interpretation is that you can pull the clamps after 30 minutes but don't do much more than relocate the parts to somewhere else to setup overnight. I have stressed scrap after only 30 minutes just for the sake of science and some joints failed, some did not. For what good materials cost, I can organize my work to allow a glue up to at least setup over night. There's always something else to do while I wait ;-)
 
I try not to sand them for atleast a hour. Sanding creates heat and can cuase the joint to open up. Had it happen several times when glueing up panels. Now I wait atleast one hour.
 
12-24 hours.....I have had some joints open up after playing with them after 1 hour. Probably the humidity down here
 
I've had joints fail when worked after an hour or two. Best is to wait overnight to work the wood. Cutting to length or width is probably ok, but sanding introduces all sorts of vibration.
 
I use the "Leave it until tomorrow" or longer rule. Almost anything I glue has taken some serious time. I'll be darned if I want to take a chance. There are at least a hundred things I should be doing in my shop, so I do some of them instead of pushing it on the glue job.

Waiting for glue to work is NOT wasting time if you are doing something else that is fun and/or constructive.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
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