Glue is the devil! My wood glue was found to be clumpy and old about a month ago. I guessed it was because it had been stored out tin the garage during the freeze and thaw of the polar vortex this past winter. So I tossed that container of glue. I went to Lowe's and got some Gorilla Glue, but then found out when I got home that it was a foaming glue that got bigger when you attached it to items, great for the resin pieces later but so much for the wood pieces of the legs that I was working on.
Today i went grocery shopping at Meijer's and decided to grab some good old Elmer's Wood Glue. I got two extra strength containers, I didn't know how much I was going to use. I got home and collected all of my clamps (and borrowed a couple from neighbors) to hold it together tightly. I watched the fabricator's, Thomas Clark, YouTube video on how to put them together. Then I pulled out my brand new glue from Meijer's.
Unless I do not understand how to use a regular bottle of glue, the glue was not good anymore. When I tried the first bottle a clear liquid came out first. I could not squeeze this bottle hard enough to get the actual glue to come out of it. Before getting frustrated, I decided to try the second bottle. This bottle had none of the clear liquid and I became a little more hopeful. That is until I started to squeeze it out. I discovered that this glue was super thick but at least it came out at first. By the second piece of wood I could not get the glue to come out of the nozzle anymore. Unscrewing the top, I squeezed with all of my might to push out globs of the thick paste. Now it was really making me angry.
But I struggled on even through the thick glue. Thomas recommended using a credit card to smooth out the glue all over the pieces as you went and then at the end after clamping as well. That seemed to work pretty well, especially because my glue was so thick. I got the dowel rods cut to length and hammered those into the legs for stability during the drying process. I clamped everything together with small blocks that I had cut to prevent the clamps from making imprints on the wooden exterior. Now I wait for it to dry.
I will be returning the bad glue to Meijer's, it had probably been sitting on the shelf for years. I will head back to Lowe's to get new wood glue, just the regular stuff, nothing fancy. Hopefully I will have better luck next time. This was not a horrible problem but the first of many hiccups probably. I am up to the challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment