I’ve got another bent lamination project coming up and am thinking about the adhesive to use. In the past I’ve used plastic resin glue (urea formaldehyde wood glue) as it dries rock hard and won’t creep. As far as I know it’s the gold standard for bent lamination. The stuff is toxic though and I’ve found milling parts glued up with it tend to be hard on tools.
Does anyone have any experience using Titebond 3 for bent laminations?
This is my go-to adhesive for most everything, except when squeeze-out cleanup is a concern as dried TB3 is pretty tough. I’m mainly concerned about creep or failure over time. The lamination planned is not extreme, a gentle bend in chair arms, so springback or the force of the lamination wanting to straighten out shouldn’t be too great.
Thanks in advance for any comments.
Replies
Maybe not exactly what you asked but I used Titebond extend for laminating the arm/back rest on the bench in the link. Quite aggressive bend, 80mm inner radius. 20 layers of 1.5mm sheets. No problems whatsoever with creeping, had small 5-10mm springback inwards(!) but didn't cause any problems.
https://www.carmonius.com/en/galleri/baenk
Another lamination story. I made a small locust table with a curved apron. I cut a thin slice on the band saw and glued it to the base structure using TB3. I had to really clamp it down, expected it to fail soon. Never did, still good.
I too am a plastic resin glue user and do quite a bit of bent laminating. Plastic resin glue went off the shelf in retail establishments. Though it appears that it is available commercially. If I want a 300 pound drum of the stuff I can get it. I cant buy a pound! It has a finite shelf life so large quantities for me are out of the question. In spite of the difficulties of using it..the relatively high room temperature that needs to be maintained while curing and the potential danger from toxic dust while mixing plastic resin glue is my go to glue for laminating. It works really well and has the ability to fill gaps that might occur during the process and most importantly it has a long open time so that when things are not going exactly as planned you have time to make adjustments. But... because of dwindling plastic resin glue reserves and because someone said titebond lll works I've tried it on some projects. I've done a couple of pretty tight curves, the last one was, I believe, 14 1/4" layers for an out door project, and out of redwood using titebond lll. Redwood hates to bend. Will split on tight curves even with very thin laminations so needs to be steamed and in steaming tends to want to curle. I built a large press with quite alot of clamping pressure. The first titebond project ,a steam bent laminated arch with a Japanese lantern , on top, you know , a garden thing in redwood. It lives outdoors and has been there maybe 3 years and so far so good. I sho ishi baned it and it survived the torching,which concerned me but worked. I have had a couple of times when I took things out of the press that I thought had had adequate time to set blow up on me. I wait longer as a result. It does not have the same gap filling abilities as the plastic resin and I feel that I have to work faster gluing and assembling a stack for fear that it will begin setting up on me. My conclusion is that titebond lll appears to work.
I live in California and according to whoever they are almost everything will kill me so many things that have not killed me yet are disappearing. So as an aside is plastic resin glue still available for retail sales anywhere?
I have used it several times to make laminated landing nets, with no issues.
The short answer is yes, Titebond III will work for a bent lamination. Now for a slightly deeper dive into yellow wood glues. All three Titebond wood glues have a different formula and for indoor laminations, I find Titebond I has a stiffer glue line than Titebond II or III. I have no data to support this besides my experience. If I have a large enough project I will buy a small bottle of Titebond I for the laminations, as the normal glue on the shelf is Titebond II. I will note that the Titebond website actually recommends Titebond I over II and III for indoor projects.
Thanks for the information. It's been a while since I did a bent lamination - I hadn't even considered the stuff might not be available any more. I also sent an email to Titebond to ask them. I'll post their reply.
When I discovered that my Unibond syrup had gone bad I went looking for an alternative. I found this:
https://vac-u-clamp.com/product/veneer-bond-dry-urea-resin-wood-adhesive-dark/
It mixes with water, no need for the gallon bottle of syrup. I bought 2 of the 14oz jars but have not used it yet. The description reads like Unibond's, except for liking higher temp for curing.
There are a bajillion opinions out there on this question. I used Titebond 2 for the bent rocker laminations on my Maloof rocker. It worked fine. Sam Maloof used Titebond 1 and 2 on his rockers and I haven't heard any stories of them delaminating.
Yes, after having poked around, opinions are numerous, and yes, Maloof is reported to have used 1 and 2 on rockers. I would describe that as a high-stress application, so if it works there...
To add, I had sent a message to Titebond and they hadn't replied, so I called their Tech Support line. The lady I talked to said to use Titebond Extend as it creates the most rigid glue line and is least susceptible to creep. That info, plus the additional time to get a dripping stack of plies into a form and clamped up, ends my search.
Thanks again to all that replied.
Gorilla glue!! Have had amazing results with it, very little to no springback!
My last bent lamination project 6 layers of 1/8" hard maple with the face layer being soft maple. I used Tightbond Hide Glue. Springback was less than 1/16" over a reasonably tight radius. The drawer fronts have held up to all kinds of abuse, mainly me chopping dovetails!
The setup time on the glue was long enough that the glue up was not rushed, which I really like.
I have used Titebond 2 for bent Lam for multiple rockers on rocking chairs and it works well, never had a hint of delamination. in addition to the load stress from sitting, there is also the continual cycling/fatigue stress from rocking. It's funny, I never even considered whether there would be failure using this glue. I've also used plastic resin glue in the past, it works great, but is a pretty dark color if that is a consideration. Epoxy works great, and in cooler weather can give you a nice long working time, especially with a slow hardener.
Dale Zimmerman of Franklin International, maker of Titebond woodworking glues, recommends 100 to 150 pounds per square inch (psi) for clamping softwoods and 175–250 psi for hardwoods same for (urea formaldehyde wood glue) and does not have a anti creep additive.
Here are a some other options with veneering adhesive guide.
https://www.joewoodworker.com/veneering/glues.htm