The Freud Rail and Stile bit sets produce a very tight and attractive joint for cabinet doors. I have two questions. First, what do you recommend for glue to join the rail and stile? There is a small amount of side-to-side grain for the the glue to grab. In this case the area is about 3/8 of an inch by the width of the rails (2 and 1/2 inches) on both sides. The joint is tight.
The next question is what to do about a failed epoxy joint. I glued up a number of doors using epoxy. The glue that remained in the plastic mixing cup hardened great. The joint remained clamped for a little over 24 hours; however, during sanding one joint came apart. I’m assuming that the temperature in the wood was a little too low for the epoxy. The shop goes down to about 50 degrees this time of year. Any recommendations? Thanks.
Replies
This is the disadvantage to router crafted R&S joints, not much surface area. I think you have no choice but to stay with epoxy on a failed epoxy joint. I can think of 3 likely failure modes. Starvation, a bad mix or contamination, besides the temperature. The reaction in the pot feeds itself heat which increases the reaction. A thin film doesn't, so a border line mix may go off in the pot and be hard in the morning where a joint might not, especially in a cold room. Try again and heat the shop or the piece with an electric blanket, heating pad or I've used 500w halogen work lights.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
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Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
Typical rail and stile bits are a glue dependant joint. They work by increasing the glue contact surface. I'm not a fan of epoxy, having had a number of failures with it. If the cutters are adjusted for a tight fit, Titebond works well for me. A good part of the joint is end grain. This can soak up all of your glue. I normally do a thin priming/sizing coat of glue on end grain first and let it almost dry. Too much glue could cause the wood to swell, keep the sizing coat to a minimum. I think you will have to use epoxy, again, to fix the bad joint.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
You will probably need to reglue with epoxy, but I would reinforce the joint. If it is not possible to do an M&T, dowel the joint with a Kreg dowel in a similar or contrasting wood. I would reglue the joint in epoxy, after it is set up for 24 hours, dowel it using aliphatic (yellow) glue.
Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
I think I would be tempted to try Titebond III, in your case, because of the low temperatures involved.
I've been playing with a couple of different yellow glues over the last couple of weeks and will have to say that I am more than impressed with the results. I've tried butt joints, both end grain to end grain and end grain to long grain, and miters. In most instances I had 90% or better wood failure. Can't get any better than that.
Previous replies cover the epoxy question.
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