To glue both sides, or just one side of the joint?

Brian Altop

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274
Location
Tacoma, WA
When using a glue such as tightbond etc, should you glue both sides of the joint, or just one?

I know that with some polyurethanes you can glue just one side.

??
 
i glue both sides on some, on mortise and tenon i glue the mortise side and not the tenon it just gobs up at the shoulder area on top. on cabinets i glue both the mortise area and tenon on the door frames but i do brush it so as to control the squeeze out.
 
I usually put a light coat of glue on both sides, just to make sure. Remember, glue is the cheapest part of your project - no reason to skimp.
 
With Titebond, I put glue on both sides. With poly glues, I've done the 'glue one side and dampen the other' routine and had no failures. (I don't use poly glue very often though.)
 
Both sides, but a very light coat. Excessive squeezeout is NOT your friend.

I always used to laugh at Norm's glue-ups. It was like "the bigger the glob, the better the job."

As for poly - I haven't used that stuff in years!
 
I've always read glue both sides, but it doesn't always work out that well for me. Glue-ups I usually glue one side only and move them back/forth a bit to spread the glue to both sides. The bigger the glue area the more likely I am to glue 1 side only. I'm always worried I take to long getting all the glue on/spread out on all sides. Never really had a problem from anything though, whether I glue 1 side or 2.
 
I always put glue on both peices. I put a thin film on each peice. This will normaly leave a nice glue joint with a few beads of glue squezing out.
 
Both sides. What's more, in certain situations I 'size' the edges first, let dry for a while, and then apply a second light coat before gluing together. Especially size plywood edges and end grain. Also, some don't use glue on pocket-hole joints. I always do unless the idea is to be able to take apart some day.
 
One of the WW magazines had an article on gluing. It had stuff about absorption, dampness, penetration, etc. Anyway it all ended up that it is better to glue both sides. I will see if I can find the article. I might have seen it in a mag. at the coffee shop, or library, or one of my subscriptions.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
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