It’s my least favorite job in the shop. I hate glue ups. Lamination. Whatever.
It’s a sticky, wet mess. And, glue flies everywhere. It ruins shop clothes. It’s all over my hands. It builds up on clamps … and that’s a problem. Get enough glue residue on the clamps, and they don’t work properly.
What’s a woodworker to do?
My solution for the past several years was to apply masking tape to the metal bars of each clamp for the width of the boards being clamped. That does protect the bar, pretty much, but does nothing for the clamp ends that build up glue deposits. When those glue deposits get mixed in with some wood splinters that come off of the work pieces, then you’ve got a real problem.
Plus, the bottoms of the metal bars are left unprotected. Wet glue flows downhill, and eventually glue will accumulate that will have to be scraped off. Or something.
My normal approach now has me “picking & processing” 50+ pieces, or “blanks,” at a time. I’ll generally do gluing for 2 days to get everything laminated … then I take all of those pieces to the finish line. I’ve currently got 44 clamps that are 2′ long, so I can typically do somewhere between 14 and 22 glue-ups, depending on how wide the work pieces are. When all of the wood has been “picked and processed,” and is taped together ready to be glued up … I will fill the available clamps in about 2 hours.
And, no, I don’t have enough clamps. Nor do I have enough space to store the ones that I do have.
An alternative to taking the glue off … is not letting it get stuck on in the first place.
Bates Glue Release won’t let glue stick to a surface, once applied. You wipe the watery, glue-looking stuff onto the clamps. If feels a bit waxy, and the clamps are definitely more slippery once the Bates is applied.
And the glue can’t stick.
At all.
I’ve used Bates for a few months now. Some clamps have gotten 3 applications, some just one. What’s clear is that the new clamps still look new. The Bates application doesn’t affect the glue already on the clamps … but no new glue will gather if Bates is on the clamp.
Bates is highly recommended. You can buy it here.
Tools for doing the actual glue ups:
- Clamps, of course. I prefer Jet parallel face clamps
- 1-1/2″ masking tape (I buy factory 2nds by the case for $2.68/roll)
- A false top for my workbench so most of the glue gets left on the replaceable, melamine top. Glue will wipe off of melamine … but the build up will inevitably start!
- Titebond III (my glue of choice; I buy 2 gallons at a time from HomeDepot.com) in a Fast Cap “Glu-Bot”
- A rubber roller to spread the glue
- A bowl of water
- A kitchen scrub pad (I buy big packs from a kitchen supply store and cut them up for a usable size)
- Paper towels
I follow the manufacturer’s recommendation on how to apply Titebond III:
- Apply it generously to one surface being laminated
- Spread a consistent thin layer over the entire joint
- Apply clamps
- Wipe off the squeeze out with a wet kitchen scouring pad
- Wipe off the watered down glue on the board with paper towels
- Leave the board in the clamps for at least 60 minutes
- Don’t machine the board until the glue has cured a minimum of 24 hours
Note that I have found that letting end grain cutting boards cure for 72 hours is actually better. Otherwise, water-swollen wood fibers will remain expanded while you sand. When they dry and shrink, your glue line will be left proud of the new, sunken wood surface. Better to go slower and let the wood shrink to it’s normal size.
And, one more pro tip: removal of dried glue from woodworking clamps can be done by soaking each clamp in vinegar for a few hours, then scraping the softened glue off. Just don’t leave the clamp in the vinegar too long, or you’ll take the chrome plating off of the clamp.
You can guess how I gathered that knowledge.
