I am building some built-in cabinets/shelves for my house and I’m having a hard time cleaning up the glue squeeze-out. This is my first attempt at finish carpentry/woodworking, my previous experience is all rough carpentry. I am making the shelving unit out of 3/4″ MDF with a #2 pine face frame. Yeah, I know…not exactly “fine woodworking” materials, but you have to start cheap when you aren’t sure if you know what you’re doing.
Having already searched this website, it seems that my first mistake was using yellow glue with pine and my second mistake was trying to wipe off the excess before it dried. In the places where I didn’t wipe it, the glue dried as a nice bead that could be easily scraped off the surface with a sharp plane or a chisel. The place where I am stuck is the thin veneer of glue in all the 90 deg. corners where the shelves are dadoed into the vertical end panels. I tried some sandpaper on a square piece of scrap, and a random orbit sander, but both seemed to remove all the surrounding wood without affecting the glue that much.
The shelf unit will be painted when I’m done, so if there is some way to make primer stick to the dry glue, that might be another answer. Any suggestions are much appreciated.
Replies
Use a damp rag along with a putty knife wiping and using the rag to clean the glue from the putty knife. You can also wrap the putty knife in the rag athis will help you get in the tight to clean the corners.
This works well for me, the putty knife should not be of the ridged type.
It should have some flex to it. Also it must be kept clean.
Tony
No mistake using yellow glue on pine - should work fine.....
re the glue stain left, a wet rag won't work when the glue is dry.
When wet, I use a 6" rule to scrape any large stains back, flex it so that the body of the blade is parallel to the grain and the surface, and slowly push the glue back to the joint, lift the rule off with surplus glue on it, wipe clean and repeat numerous times.
Now, as your glue's dried, the only option that I can suggest is that you hold a (bluntish, not dead blunt, nor sharp) chisel bevel up on the surface of the shelf and push it slowly towards the glue line. As it's bluntish ( a highly technical term), it should act as a scraper and remove the residue without cutting into the surface. Go easy on the pressure, you need light fingertip pressure only.
Cheers,
eddie
If the glue in the corners is not going the affect the sliding of drawers or something like that, the paint will hide it. There is no problem with oil based paints or primers adhering to glue residue.
The way I remove squeeze out from 90 degree corners is with a plastic drinking straw that I get at McDonald's. Push the end of the straw into the corner tightly and push it along the corner. The end of the straw will conform to the 90 degree corner and the glue will be forced up into the straw. Either blow it out every so often or just cut off about an inch or so of the straw to get a fresh end. Let the glue set for 10-15 minutes before you begin. If the item is to be painted, I then use a wet toothbrush to scrub the corner and a paper towel to dry it.
Use less glue
Who Ever Has The Biggest Pile Of Tools When You Die Wins
Right on! the way we teach this is to have beginners use very little glue, and then go ahead and join. Then immediately take the joint apart and see how much coverage you actually got. You get the picture very soon and begin to gauge the ideal amount very quickly. Too much glue is a huge waste of time and though this project is painted, one would have a real problem if the piece were clear finished.
using blue painters tape on the glue squeeze out areas helps prevent glue stains.
but like the others said, use less glue. But the painters tape helps when boo-boos happen
There is an excellent article in the latest FWW by Jeff Jewitt describing a number of methods of prevent, minimizing and cleaning up glue squeeze out. It includes my favorite of a toothbrush and distilled water.
I really don't recommend using a wet rag or towel to wipe the glue off. In my experiance there's always residue and the glue thinned with water seeps into the pours - this is especially bad with open grained wood. You won't even notice it till you try to stain the wood and it won't take. I know you're going to paint the piece but the issue is the same - how to deal with squeeze-out. Try dry fitting and tapping all the joint edges with painters tape (normal masking tape will leave a residue that's almost as bad as the glue). This takes a lot longer prep time but it's well worth it. Pull the tape off once it has started to gel - 30 minutes perhaps. Don't let it completely dry before you remove the tape - it's just easier that way. You might still have a drop or two of glue to deal with but nothing like before and you won't end up accedentally glue-sizing your piece.
Good luck!
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