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9K views 41 replies 29 participants last post by  vrice 
#1 ·
First ??? "Glue Lines"

Here goes my first of many and I do mean many…..

Glue Lines

It seems to be hard for me to get my glue lines to disappear. I sand and sand trying to get them to go away but can't seem to eliminate them.

The mallet I made, on the top where I put in my splines it looked great at first but then the next day I came to see my dried glue item. They are very faint but can still be seen until I put few coats polyurethane. I noticed some black marks also but this may be from the cheap soft wood I used for a recipe that called for hardwood.

1. To sum up I use probably a thicker coat of glue then needed and soon after I clamp I wipe with a damp cloth?
Using (Elmer's WoodGlue Max - Interior exterior. Can't be the brand right?

2. Some put saw dust on dripping glue is this better than trying to wipe away excess before it dries with wet rag?

3. These folks who do the 8 different kinds of wood on one cutting board, box.Or the super crazy good tables with like 100 different glue ups!! that the guy calls (GeoMatriX) There is no secret other than perfectly planed wood or jointed.??

answering a number will be easier on the both of us if possible

Thanks so much everyone who encouraged me to bother everyone with my noob questions. I promise no more for a few days after this….. well maybe
 
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#2 ·
We love questions! Don't know about Elmer's as I use Titebond. I never wipe wet squeeze out off, rather I let it get almost dry and then scrape it off with a paint scraper (scrape at the 'hard booger' stage).
 
#3 ·
ok thank you for your input any time you might see a project or something and they say its from a March 91 wood mag or something like that and want to know more about it which you probably don't actually need to know all the details but if you do. I have pretty well all of them that I can somehow send them by email or ??? only through computer no stamp type stuff though. There in PDF format

Thanks (Gfadvm)
 
#4 ·
A suggestion. Before you put the glue on the edges, put the edges together and see how tight the joint will be. You may not be getting your edges really ready for glue-up
Hey Andy, is that "hard booger" stage a techinical term?
 
#5 ·
I need a tissue now Gary! And it's not for cleaning hard boogers..I'm LOL so hard my eyes are crying!
I too uses Tight Bond 11 and 111. If you use water to clean up the glue it may dilute the glue and make it absorb into the grain. I do what gfadvm does using a scraper when the glue is like gum! Or you can use a razor blade.
 
#6 ·
I wouldn't worry about the glue lines where your joints come together. Believe me, you will see dozens of "mistakes" or "problems" that you think really stand out, but no one else will probably see them at all. Yes, it's possible to have really tight joints and you will have more of them with practice, but even on a good day, if you make a lot of doors or face frames, some of them will have noticeable glue lines or even have small gaps that need putty in them (hopefully on the back).
1. I just bought some Elmer's interior/exterior for the first time and it seems comparable to Tightbond II so no problem there. If you are using darker woods, you may want to use Tightbond III because it dries darker.

2. Ggadvm (Andy) already covered this and number 1 with his answer. I guess sawdust would help to dry the glue faster so you could chisel it away, but seems like a waste of time to me.

3. Yes and no. Some of those cutting boards may be perfect, but I know all of them aren't. The gaps will get smaller with practice, and how much of a glue line will show will depend on you, as in are you willing to let it go or will you remake the project to fix errors. I'm something of a perfectionist so it's really hard for me to be a professional woodworker, working for someone else and getting paid by the hour. I want everything to be perfect and spend way too much time trying to fix things that the customer will not even notice or care about. (I know this because of all the times I don't think I matched a color close enough, or couldn't quite get the gaps around the cabinet doors just right or drawers exactly straight, etc., but he customer just loved the cabinets anyway).

Anyway, keep building things and keep asking questions and learning and sooner than you think, you'll be the one answering the noob's questions on here.
 
#7 ·
Not sure if you are using a jointer or not but….your saw may not be giving you a perfect cut. If this is the case; you could leave a small gap. When you try to fill this gap with glue and then sand…..that glue joint will stand out.
 
#9 ·
Yes- I think the "secret" to a tight glue joint is perfectly square edges on both boards and good clamps. Check the "joint" before you glue…the boards you join should fit together perfectly. If they don't then work on those edges till they do. Keep them crisp….And DON'T sand them to get them tight. Sanding at this stage will only make the joint bigger by rounding the edges off. use a jointer or hand plane.
Don't worry about glue squeeze out at first- if you remember to scrape it off when it's rubbery that's great, if not, oh well. Sanding and scraping is part of the fun, right?
 
#10 ·
At the risk of sounding to some like a broken record, you could try hot hide glue. It's gluelines actually shrink as the joint dries and it doesn't seal the wood against stain and you can wipe it off with water almost immediately and you often don't need clamps and if you mess up it's reversible….etc., etc., etc.
 
#11 ·
Picked up a tip somewhere suggesting the use of plastic soda straws for removing gummy, boogery glue. I have tried it and it works well enough. But I usually reach for a pocket knife or a cheap chisel to scrap glue.

AND, chase me around and swat me for saying this, but I keep a large a large ketchup bottle filled with water in the shop and paper towels in the shop. I have never run into problems removing fresh glue from a clamped joint with a damp paper towel.

Best practise, avoid squeeze out in the first place, practise and use moderation. Rockler's new blue glue brush works beautifully. Compared to a soda straw? The straw is better for getting that hard booger out of your nose.
 
#13 ·
All I can say is WOW I would of never thought I would get this many tips on a simple question on here from so many different people. Trying to thank each and everyone who commented would be a bit more than im up to this morning. Instead I will pick my 2 favorite answers.

2. The answer given by Arookar Hate to say this but I need to bring one of the old hand planes my pap gave me awhile back. Should of done this way sooner being's I hear SO much about them.. Thanks

1. My favorite would be the well detailed and specifically requested comment wrote by Dale M. Seems like you answered as you read my blog and stuck to my requests in your entire comment. I am very aware of the problem I am having and I do need to address certain things before I begin assembly.

Thank you all for all the support you's have gave me.
Having 10 comments from people on such a simple question is really helpful to get all kinds of ideas. I wish though others couldn't see what comments have been given. I would probably read the same answer though 5 times in row with different wording but all in all. I have some work to do and am goin to get that one of the 2 planes given to me out and try and bring them back to life. The cleaning up part won't really be the challenge for me as to getting it to perform correctly when put back together.

Thanks Everyone!!!!
Jason
 
#14 ·
Beginner Questionaire for JN1C3 #2:

So I went back to my local woodworking place where they make cabinet, built ins and such. Dug through there scrap pile and got a few more pieces of wood. The question here is quite a simple nobish type one. Though may not be able to be answered due to my poor 5 mp camera.

I would like to know what this wood is in the pics below

1.
Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Varnish


2. Possibly the same as above
Brown Table Rectangle Wood Flooring


3. Might be too small to actually tell on this one due to poor camera quality.These were the only ones that I cut and they smell really funny can't match it with any scent though.
Wood Rectangle Wood stain Hardwood Flooring


1. and 2. together.
The one standing is a really thick piece 2 1/4 thick X 5"X9"
Brown Wood Rectangle Floor Flooring


Note above that these pictures might be hard to do justice for an accurate answer also not being able to touch or smell for yourself might also be a factor. I was thinkin or hopin I mean that I had a piece of walnut here but not sure. My best guess would be mahogany maybe?

Answers would be great matched with a number as well 1-3
Thanks everyone who views and gives there opinion

Beginner Jason W
 

Attachments

#15 ·
Beginner Questionaire for JN1C3 #2:

So I went back to my local woodworking place where they make cabinet, built ins and such. Dug through there scrap pile and got a few more pieces of wood. The question here is quite a simple nobish type one. Though may not be able to be answered due to my poor 5 mp camera.

I would like to know what this wood is in the pics below

1.
Brown Rectangle Wood Flooring Varnish


2. Possibly the same as above
Brown Table Rectangle Wood Flooring


3. Might be too small to actually tell on this one due to poor camera quality.These were the only ones that I cut and they smell really funny can't match it with any scent though.
Wood Rectangle Wood stain Hardwood Flooring


1. and 2. together.
The one standing is a really thick piece 2 1/4 thick X 5"X9"
Brown Wood Rectangle Floor Flooring


Note above that these pictures might be hard to do justice for an accurate answer also not being able to touch or smell for yourself might also be a factor. I was thinkin or hopin I mean that I had a piece of walnut here but not sure. My best guess would be mahogany maybe?

Answers would be great matched with a number as well 1-3
Thanks everyone who views and gives there opinion

Beginner Jason W
Sure looks like walnut to me.
 

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#24 ·
Sizing down Plywood

Hello again everyone I would like to ask another question on here since all the previous ones I have asked were answered and now I understand what I was doing wrong or what the case was.

I am currently gathering materials needed to build a TableSaw Workstation that can be seen in the Shopnotes issue #89

The question for this series is what are some of your ways of cutting down large sheets of plywood or MDF and getting them squared up?? "Using a Benchtop size Table saw"
I DID NOT CUT A FULL SHEET OF PLYWOOD ON MY SMALL TABLE SAW!!
When I built my crosscut sled I now understand what I did wrong with this one, I made it too small!!
It does however do really well at squaring up smaller pieces!

I would like to know what techniques I could consider in gettin my pieces to size without wasting to much materials. You could say that I am copying a design from off of here that a certain lumberjock did in a blog style post on here with complete sketchup pics,designs,cut list,materials list, the whole 9!!!

Can be seen here:
http://lumberjocks.com/gwurst/blog/4434

To practice I bought a sheet of OSB "for practice". Along with 2 sheets of MDF and a sheet of Plywood all 3/4". The OSB was really cheap and I wanted to work with it first to practice and make sure I could perfom well on this and not just start into a $40 sheet of MDF.

I also don't currently have a circular saw to cut it to manageable size to work on my saw. I used a jig saw on the sheet of osb to cut into 3 pieces. Then when I tried to start cutting on my table saw I could not find a way to get a straight edge to start with. I did however try using a jointer style fence attachment on my table saw but I really dont think that this worked that well. This was pretty much a piece of MDF as a sacrificial fence attached to rip fence and then adding a 1/4" piece positioned at the rear part of the blade back to the end of the MDF fence. I really think I just need to make a panel sled but I didn't really wanna use more materials that I don't have to do this. But this might be the answer I need who knows.

Well I hope you all can understand my gibberish on this problem.
All ideas,comments welcome and also negative ones as well. (Someboby telling me im hopeless and theres nothing I can do might be the answer who know)....lol

Thanks guys for reading and I hope to hear what you have to say!!!
 
#25 ·
Cutting down full sheets(4×8) on a table saw is dangerous, a pain, and an inexact science since you have to have a fence that absolutely will not move and you have to push the stock up against the fence and forward at the same time.
Years ago the wife bought me a Ryobi (circular) skill saw for $35.00 on sale at Home Depot. The only thing it really gets used for is cutting down 4×8 sheets of stock. I also bought a 2 piece aluminum extrusion fence that i can clamp to the stock to use as a guide for the skill saw at HD for $30.00. When the 2 pieces are joined together it is 98" long and each piece is like 49". You could just as well use a small 4" wide strip of plywood for the skill saw fence and have a 50" piece and a 96" piece. You can measure the diagonals for square on a full piece of plywood and cut it to square up if it isn't. I think you are making it harder than it has to be.
 
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