Wipe or Scrape Glue Squeeze Out? – Viewer Question
Nick wrote in to ask about glue squeeze out:
Hey Marc…Found your site while looking for a good cutting board “how-to”. Went through the site and watched all the videos to catch up and they are great. Anyway, my question is this: I watch New Yankee Workshop and every time Norm has a squeeze out of glue, he cleans it instantly saying it could affect the finishing. I see glue squeeze out of your work and looks like you let it dry and scrap it out. Does that not affect the finish? Keep up the good work and love the site.
And this was my reply:
Thanks for the kind words Nick. Well, here’s the deal on squeeze out. I hate to say it but this is one area where I have to disagree to some extent with His Normness. Wiping the glue away, especially with a wet rag, could very well increase your odds of having a finishing problem. Since the glue is water-based, the water in the rag dilutes the glue as you rub it into the wood grain. This could easily lead to an area near the joint that is partially sealed, and as a result won’t accept stain as well as the rest of the piece. Now if you wipe thoroughly enough and sand afterward, chances are you’ll get enough of the glue off the surface that it won’t be a major problem. This is why Norm probably doesn’t have issues with this (that we know of). But personally, I would rather not take the chance. So instead of wiping with a wet rag right away, I let the glue droplets set up for a little while (about 20 minutes). At this point, the glue has skinned over and you can easily scrape the droplets away with a card scraper or some other type of scraping tool. 
You’ll know you are scraping too soon if the little glue bubbles start bursting easily. And you’ll know you waited too long if the glue is hard to remove and starts pulling out wood fibers. Once the bulk of the squeeze out is gone, I will clean off the scraper and take one final pass. Once the area is pretty clean, then and only then will I take a damp rag to the area and do a final cleaning. Any glue that was left on the surface will now be wiped away, or simply diluted so much that it makes no difference.
Ultimately, both methods will work. But scraping while the glue is just skinned over is less messy, and in my opinion, the safer bet. And of course, tape your joints off whenever possible to prevent squeeze out from being an issue in the first place.
This is just the way I like to handle squeezeout. I’d love to hear how everyone else deals with it?
The first picture above was taken from a Popular Woodworking article, “Prevent, Remove, and Disguise Glue Splotches” by Bob Flexner. The second image was taken from the Benchcrafted Blog.
How Much Glue? – Viewer Question
This question comes from Adam who asks:
I have been at this hobby affectionately referred to as woodworking for about a year and a half now, and I’ve made some pretty decent projects. No substantial furniture, but some nice smaller things. I was in the process of making my most recent project, a box to hold pictures and sit on a coffee table, and I had an epiphany. Every project I have done has had the same problem. GLUE!!! I think I have been making the rookie mistake for WAY too long and thought I would see if you had any input on it. I ALWAYS use entirely too much in my joints. I use blue tape and allow it to skin over and scrape it away, but it is still normally a pretty big mess. I’m always scared that I’m not getting enough glue in the joints when I try to use less, so then I worry myself until I put more. So as a request, could you include a couple of close-ups of your next glue up so that I can get an idea of how much is the right amount? I know as of now that I am using too much, I just don’t want to use too little and have my projects fall apart. I’ve heard time and time again that a thin film is plenty on the joints and I realize that squeeze out will occur…but not as much as I am experiencing. Also, the word “thin” is relative. What I put on is a “thin” coat…until it squeezes out and runs all over my blue tape. Lol thanks for any help you can throw my way.
And here was my reply:
Hey Adam. In the Steamer Trunk Pt. 3, I believe I showed a good shot of a rabbet joint being glued up, and you can clearly see the squeeze out. If I recall, that joint was a little wetter than I usually like. But it was a pre-finished piece so the squeeze out was easy enough to clean. Now as a general rule of thumb, as long as each adjoining piece is coated completely, you have enough glue on the joint. You are right in that all you need is a thin film. And from what I understand, the thinner the film, the stronger the joint.
Now let’s talk about how thin the coating needs to be. Think of painting a wall. You don’t slop the paint on real heavy, right? Instead, you roll it out into one smooth continuous thin layer. And that’s what you should do with your glue joints. In general, you want to make sure each part of the joint has glue from edge to edge. And if you want to add a smidge more for good luck, go ahead.
Oh and here’s another way to think of it. I just love food analogies! Let’s talk bagels: butter vs cream cheese. When it comes to butter, most folks like a nice thin coating of butter from edge to edge. And with cream cheese, people tend to like a more generous helping. Some crazy people actually like so much cream cheese that its more like having a bagel with their cream cheese instead of the other way around. (I am qualified to speak on this topic because I spent a full year working at a My Favorite Muffin in Princeton, NJ). So glue should be spread more like butter, instead of like a schmear of cream cheese. Now I’m hungry! Lunch anyone?
Removing Glue from Clamps – Viewer Question
This week’s question comes from Jeff who writes:
Hey Marc, I have the following question, and could really use some advice. Do you know any way to clean the bars on the Jet Parallel clamps? They are supposed to be coated so glue doesn’t stick. Mine, however, stick. In fact, I can no longer open nor close my 24′ ones! Any ideas? Thanks.
And here is my response:
Hey Jeff. Very good question. This is a dilemma that all clamp users face. Although the manufacturer may claim they are resistant to glue, you and I know different! First off, any new clamp that comes into the shop gets waxed immediately with paste wax. That will definitely help repel glue. However, once the damage is done I usually get the heavy stuff off with a putty knife. That usually takes care of the bulk of it and gets the clamp working again. For the textured area on the top, you can use a steel brush to knock the glue out of the crevices. If you are in a rush, just pick up one of those wire wheels that chucks into your drill, and carefully knock the glue out of the grooves. Just don’t be too aggressive or you can smooth out the texture and the ridges. And, of course, the best practice with these clamps is prevention. That means covering them with a sheet of newspaper, craft paper, wax paper, brown paper, or even sheets of plastic. Although I need to practice what I preach. Most times, I don’t think about prevention until after the glue is drying, haha. Good luck!
Demo Night 7/8/08
So if you missed Demo Night last night, you missed A LOT! I started by discussing polyurethane durability and glue shelf life and showed some interesting examples of both. I then gave a little feature review of the Festool Kapex. And finally, I showed off the sweet lumber I just received for the upcoming Gadget Station. I then got into a discussion about mail order lumber and the company I have been working with lately, Bell Forest Products. And this is just a small sample of the session that ran about 2 hours and hosted nearly 100 people.
And please excuse the camera work. I pretty much did the best I could by myself. You should notice much improved video and audio though, so that’s a good thing. If you want to attend future Demo Nights, just check the Calendar periodically for updates.
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