TBIII Set up time?

Ned Bulken

Member
Messages
5,529
Location
Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
Hi gang,
I'm in the midst of yet another round of cutting boards, and am in the 'watching glue dry' phase, using Tight Bond III. Other than 'overnight' how long do you wait before you work on the piece again? I'm usually in the 'overnight' camp as well, but I've been watching Scott Phillips on the american woodshop and he mentions a really Short time span... as in just a couple of hours of set up time. more idle curiosity than anything, I'm perfectly happy to leave the boards I glued up this morning til tomorrow, but I wouldn't mind planing them down this evening (9 to 12 hours from glue up) if possible.
 
Ned you would be safe to start planing them down in a couple of hours with out havig any problems with the joints. A complete cure, I would say overnight is more than sufficient I have heard of some cases of glue line creep, but I have only experienced it on one board that I did, and never did come to a conclusion as to why, so it's a non issue for me so far.
 
I usually wait overnight but sometimes my overnight wait ends up only being 10-12 hours. The only time I've ever had a problem was when I let a glue up sit for less than 4 or 5 hours.
 
even if youre glueing up in ideal conditions, meaning moderate temps and low humidity, there is no reason not to let them cure properly. whats the rush?
You could plane down 6 boards in 10 minutes with the planer, so why risk any headaches.
 
If I'm in a rush I'll wait 3-4 hours. If not like Allen says I'll wait overnight. Now, If I glue early in the morning and get back at it 8 - 9 hours later I consider that "overnight".
 
I've planed things that have set up for a few hours with yellow glue. Sometimes they held, sometimes they haven't. Now that I'm old and a little wiser, I try to wait overnight. But that's TB I or the Elmer's equivalent.
 
Top