Titebond II on Bamboo?

Bamboo is not very porous on the surface. I wouldn’t expect
simple glued butt joints to work. Rattan furniture is usually
held with nails and wrapped cane around the joints.

With bamboo you can drill the larger pieces and insert the
smaller into the holes, making a mechanical joint. The
insides of bamboo can be plugged and held with wood
disks. Use a gap-filling glue of some sort to hold the
disks in place, since the inside of bamboo probably doesn’t take glue too well either.

I’ve worked with bamboo some. Other than the top of my workbench, the most relevant project was a clock I made. My intuition was that glue alone would not be sufficient on rabbit joints and I used biscuits. It has held up well for over 10 years. I guess I will never know if the biscuit were necessary – but I felt better using them.

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

Thanks, guys. I was hoping someone would answer, but here I am 15 min. later, and two of the most skilled craftsmen on here have answered! I had to reread my post, and it was murky. The smaller pieces will be going into holes on an upward angle through the oak, the oak will be screwed to the bar. The piece of bamboo these “struts” go through is strictly for looks (this covers the oak).

The other option would be my talking them into making brackets out of cypress (bartop is cypress), thereby assuring strength.

-- Wish I were Norm's Nephew

I have made bamboo flyrods and they were put together with Titebond III. The flyrods all have been through several years of fishing expeditions and I have not had the glue joints fail yet. But, the joints were glued across the grain (not on end grain). I think glue joints across the grain are stronger, so you may want to pay attention to that. The other thing I did to the flyrods is, I coated them with spar varnish. I think that also helped it to be more durable.

You may also want to consider using Titebond III because it is waterproof. I imagine a bartop may get wet, so it might be better to use the III instead of the II.

But, I am not sure if any type of glue can hold a person up like that…

-- Charles from California

funchuck, thanks for answering the call. I am leaning toward the bracket idea if I can convince the owners. I took the bar rail back to my shop and the glue up was spotty on all four supports. I can only imagine this was the first time that rail was abused (it is a new tiki hut, one of my jobs is to spray fire retardant on it).

-- Wish I were Norm's Nephew