I built a frame to go over a wall mirror, and had to glue part of the frame to the glass. I used Goriila glue. I had a little expansion and squeeze out between the frame and the glass. I was able to cut and scrape away the bulk of it, but I have a little bit of residue left over. Will anything dissolve this stuff? Mineral spirits didn’t seem to work.
Thanks.
Jeff
Edited 3/11/2007 10:33 am ET by jhounshell
Replies
Acetone is the only thing I'm aware of that has any hope with Poly glue. It's been a while since I've used any poly but from what I recall, even the acetone is only going to work while the glue is liquid or half-cured. And that just ends up smearing it around which is usually worse, but it will take most of it off. I think you're stuck doing more scraping or sanding to get the rest of it. The best cure I know of is to not get any squeezeout on the wood in the first place by masking off the joints with blue painters tape.
If you build it he will come.
Denatured alcohol will also effectively remove uncured GG.
I used the blue painters tape trick with GG. Thinking I had it covered, I didn't worry about removing the tape before the glue had cured. Now it doesn't matter whether I used tape or not, it doesn't come off without liberal applications of C4....;->(Never again...Jeff
The Gorilla Glue site says there is no solvent for cured GG. Best you can do is to use a razor blade paint scraper like those used to remove paint from glass.
jhounshell, Acetone will completely remove partially-cured polyurethane glue from the wood so cleanly that the wood will look freshly-prepared. But once the glue has cured, only mechanical scraping or sanding will get it off. I really like the stuff. I apply it so I get the barest minimum of squeeze out of small beads along the glue line, which, of course, foam as soon as they hit the air. I wipe then away after about 15 minutes with acetone. Wiping woks great if you get all the glue, but I hate it when I miss something. However, it pares away easily with a sharp knife or chisel unlike PVA glues. It has very little integrity outside the joint. Rich
Ah yes, another good reason to never use polyurethane glue for woodworking.
In fact, I know of no reason to ever use it.
Hal
http://www.rivercitywoodworks.com
Hal,Tsk, tsk. Give it a whirl. You'll like it!Rich
Oh don't worry, I have used it too much already. The results were always just what one always sees from this glue, and now that I know more about it, I know that these properties are inherent in the product.
So I never use it now. And hey, I never have it on my clothes anymore either!
The problem is that it really isn't such a good glue, it just sticks to things well. The two are not the same.
Consequently, there has been quite a bit of dissapointment related to it because it has no strength when filling any amount of gap, regardless of what people think. On top of that, it is messy to use, toxic, and doesn't really resist movement very well compared to the other readily available products.
I do get a kick out of seeing deck builders using it, then trying to clean up the dried foam later.
Hal
http://www.rivercitywoodworks.com
Well, I have never used it for gap filling. I don't know why anyone would. But I have a number of wood-body planes made of koa with lignum vitae soles glued to together with Gorilla Glue. The oldest is 4 years. No problems. Rich
Rich,
The reason I mentioned gap filling is because this glue has been advertised as gap filling. There have been many woodworkers that have used it thinking that it would fill the gap and glue things together, but although it does fill gaps, the glue has no strength in a gap.
If you use it and are happy with it, that's fine. I just don't think it is worth the trouble. Plus I have had creeping problems with it when gluing resinous wood.
Hal
Hal
Here's a good article which examines most of the characteristics. It's certainly not a gap-filling glue in terms of providing strength in that gap, which is what we expect when we speak of a glue being "gap filling." It only "fills" small gaps cosmetically to the degree that the useless foam expands into spaces.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/features/fea.asp?id=1064
But it's a very good glue with its own characteristics and advantages/disadvantages. Any material has to be used within its parameters. If someone who isn't familiar with hot hide glue tried to use it without heating it and complained that it didn't work and was useless, that would be ridiculous. People who know how to use hot hide glue think it's a wonder glue. We don't relegate hot hide glue to the "useless" bin because it has a rather large set of specific parameters to satisfy before the stuff will even begin to work. Polyurethane must be used correctly to get its advantages.
As far as pieces "creeping" with polyurethane, if you mean during clamp-up, can't comment there, any glue-up process must be controlled. But I have never heard of creep problems with polyurethane after it's set.
Rich
Hi Rich,
The problem I had with the creeping was after the glue had set.
I still don't see a need to use it in woodworking for general use. Titebond makes easy to use (and clean-up) glues that will do virtually anything that needs to be glued. Anything else can be glued with epoxy, and then there is hide glue. Why use polyurethane?
Hal
Rich,
So I read the article in that you linked me to.
I hate to say it but it basically confirmed what I already think about the stuff.
If you use it and you like it, that's fine. One thing about woodworking that I find very interesting is that there is always more than one way to accomplish things.
One time many years ago, I was in a friend's shop who builds airplanes. Three guys had spent a couple of days working on a way to build a larger wing flap, cutting, welding, and making fittings to attach to the wing, and also trying to figure out how to move the ailerons out farther on the wings.
I stopped by and gave them a quick and simple solution to the problem after looking at it for just a minute. They couldn't believe it could be done so easily. Then one guy said, "Well sure, if you're going to do it like that, anybody could do it!"
Hal
http://www.rivercitywoodworks.com
Edited 3/13/2007 1:15 pm ET by Hal J
I have used poly glue for exterior applications like garden gates, trellis assembly, etc. However, I find pva glue (polyvinyl acetate - Titebond is one brand) easier to use for general woodworking, cabinetry, antique repair, etc. There is nothing more frustrating than getting a beautiful old chair in the shop and find someone used poly to glue it together (and it did come apart).
Lee Valley used to post tensile and shear strengths for various glues - poly was always listed with much lower values than pva. And I have found it does fail in applications that other glues would work well (outdoor furniture - usually cedar or pine). Lee Valley stopped posting the strengths because all the glues typically exceed the strength of most wood but there are considerable differences among the lot of them.
ETG,
My only experience with it has been to glue oily/waxy tropical hardwoods. It has worked very well. I could also use epoxy for that, but I tried Gorilla Glue, it worked beautifully, I loved how well it cleaned up with acetone. So for these applications, I could say there's no reason for me to use anything else. (Although I plan to use epoxy for some upcoming large projects).
I use hot hide glue and PVA glues for everything else I glue.
It's always good to have a variety of ways to get things done.
Rich
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