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Using CA for glue ups?

J

Joe Sheble

Joined
Aug 14, 2019
Messages
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Location
Apache Junction, AZ
I've done a few glue ups and have always used TiteBond II, but it requires clamping, makes quite a mess, and takes a fairly long time to dry (cure?) completely. I've seen a bunch of videos on YouTube where the turner will glue up his scrap pieces with CA glue, and then start turning fairly quickly (using an accelerator). I know that TBII works the best, but since I'm hoping to alleviate the clamping and some of the mess, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with using CA for the glue up? And if so, what are some of the pros & cons?
 
I use CA and accelerator to hold glue blocks to green bowl blanks when I don’t have enough wood to give for a tenon.
When the bowl is turned a flat chisel in the glue joint spits the glue.
Most is the time there is no wood torn from either the glue block or the bowl.
CA works great for this and is one of the few glues that will bond to green wood.
It also requires working at a reasonable pace as the glue joint will fail after a couple,of hours when the green wood moves enough.

anything that I want to stay together I use Titebond. Or epoxy

CA is the one of the few glues that is not stronger than wood and it is quite brittle


I have seen a demo by Michael Hosulak- does rub joint with elmers glue - no clamps - sets to do some work quite quickly.
 
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"CA is the one of the few glues that is not stronger than wood and it is quite brittle."
Tried it on a couple of things and CA didn't hold. I use TBIII for wood glue-ups.
 
You think a water soluble glue makes a mess? Glue your hand to the bench with CA and really see what a mess is. Most people make their own mess with PVA glue and put on about 10 times to much. You only need a very thin film and that never comes from squeezing a huge bottle on the joint. Buy some acid brushes or silicone spreaders.
 
Vicki Hayden said:
I use hot melt glue to glue on a glue block to a short piece of stock. Works fast and really holds.
Click to expand...
I know a lot of people do it your way, I just know how expensive the dentist is, so for waste blocks I use Titebond and let it set overnight.
 
I'm a hot melt user... it has a place in my shop, so does ca, titebond and epoxy. I've recently tried west system g-flex epoxy and so far like it, I like the write up on their site. I'll wait five or ten years and report back, as I use it for what I hope will be permanent bonds. If anyone wants some epoxy info, the West System website has a wealth of information.
Here is a link to the g-flex
https://www.westsystem.com/specialty-epoxies/gflex-650-toughened-epoxy/
Lots of reasons to adhere one thing to another, probably why there are so many different adhesives...
 
What kind of glue ups are you talking about. Segmented turning or gluing a waste block onto a bowl. I find CA to be fragile to impact and even worse if you use Accelerator. It has also proven to go bad over the years so I would never use it for segmented work that I want to last a lifetime. If I'm going to use a waste block I do all of my preparations the last thing in the evening. Then by morning it's cured with whatever glue I use so no problem. For segmented work I squirt PVA glue into a small cup and dip the segments in. The end grain soaks up a lot of glue so I don't want a starved joint. I assemble the ring loosely and when done I put the clamp on. Then I wipe off the excess glue. I do this glue up on a flat board covered with formica that I wax. When I remove the ring from the board I spray it with water and then just wipe the excess glue off and go on to the next ring. Yes it's messy but easily cleaned up. I have used rub joints but they never go together dead on accurate so you pretty much have to do your glue ups in half rings and then true up each half. Part of the reason I went with the seg-easy jig is because my rings go together perfectly if I glue the whole ring up at once and I developed the technique above that works for me. When you glue up half rings it's very easy to remove too much and you get inaccuracies that show up when trying to do a feature ring.
 
Richard Coers said:
You think a water soluble glue makes a mess? Glue your hand to the bench with CA and really see what a mess is. Most people make their own mess with PVA glue and put on about 10 times to much. You only need a very thin film and that never comes from squeezing a huge bottle on the joint. Buy some acid brushes or silicone spreaders.
Click to expand...
I usually do use a silcone brush, but when you clamp it, there is always bleed out, and that's the mess. You can try to minimize it as much as you can, but it will still bleed out if you're doing edge to edge coverage and then clamp them.
 
john lucas said:
What kind of glue ups are you talking about. Segmented turning or gluing a waste block onto a bowl. I find CA to be fragile to impact and even worse if you use Accelerator. It has also proven to go bad over the years so I would never use it for segmented work that I want to last a lifetime. If I'm going to use a waste block I do all of my preparations the last thing in the evening. Then by morning it's cured with whatever glue I use so no problem. For segmented work I squirt PVA glue into a small cup and dip the segments in. The end grain soaks up a lot of glue so I don't want a starved joint. I assemble the ring loosely and when done I put the clamp on. Then I wipe off the excess glue. I do this glue up on a flat board covered with formica that I wax. When I remove the ring from the board I spray it with water and then just wipe the excess glue off and go on to the next ring. Yes it's messy but easily cleaned up. I have used rub joints but they never go together dead on accurate so you pretty much have to do your glue ups in half rings and then true up each half. Part of the reason I went with the seg-easy jig is because my rings go together perfectly if I glue the whole ring up at once and I developed the technique above that works for me. When you glue up half rings it's very easy to remove too much and you get inaccuracies that show up when trying to do a feature ring.
Click to expand...

No not a glue block, but actually gluing pieces of wood together to form a blank. Maybe segmented, but it's not tiny little angles glued in a ring, then the rings glued together. I'm talking about scraps glued together, such as 6 pieces of .5" square with a width & length of 6x6. Gluing different species of this size wood blocks together to come up with a 6x6x6 blank.
 
CA glue has excellent 'pull' type strength, which means glue to flat surfaces together and you will find it difficult to pull them apart. It does not take 'shear' loads well at all, and because of that, it can fail. So, if you are trying to break a CA glue joint apart, strike it from the side, like a catch when turning the inside of a bowl, and the pieces will separate.

robo hippy
 
Joe Sheble said:
No not a glue block, but actually gluing pieces of wood together to form a blank. Maybe segmented, but it's not tiny little angles glued in a ring, then the rings glued together. I'm talking about scraps glued together, such as 6 pieces of .5" square with a width & length of 6x6. Gluing different species of this size wood blocks together to come up with a 6x6x6 blank.
Click to expand...

For this application I don't think CA is a good choice. It's too brittle to start with and the bond is said to degrade over long (years) periods of time.
 
If you glue two pieces together with wood glue and mount it to the lathe with support between the headstock and tailstock you can usually start turning within a couple of hours of gluing the pieces together. If you don't provide additional support from the tailstock then you would have to let it dry at least 12-24 hours. If you have areas of the piece that will be turned away you can always add some wood screws in those areas to keep the freshly glued pieces held together and start turning right away, you can always remove the screws later on after the glue has dried and you are ready to turn those areas away.
 
"Glue your hand to the bench with CA"
Like sticking your tongue to a cold lamp post as Christmas Story?
Wife's aunt glued her fingers together and was able to get fingernail polish remover that still contained acetone.
I used TBIII for gluing cork rings for fishing rod grips and never changed. Creature of habit?
 
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