Glue for laminated wood bindings

erich@muttcrew.net

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 8, 2009
Messages
952
Reaction score
1
Location
Hamburg, Germany
We want to put together our own wood bindings with laminated purfling strips. Can anyone tell me what kind of glue would be right for the job. I've tried using HHG and Titebond red cap but they let go when we bent the strips on the bending iron.

Thanks,
Erich
 
I think, and that is always dangerous, that you either need to start with all you strips ready and glue it straight to the instrument or make up a form that mimics your contour and glue/preassemble them on that form. I hope that is clear.

The fact that a glue weakens when it is hot is a good thing in that you can dismantle and repair an instrument down the road. So, your glues are fine you just need to change your procedure.

I'm sure one of the maesters will be along to sort this for you properly.

Aphoto or two of what you are trying to accomplish would help alot.
 
I use HHG all the time for this. It doesn't release with heat alone. You need both moisture and heat to get it to release. Allow the strips to thoroughly dry and then bend without using water. Usually 3 laminated strips made of standard veneer (approx. 1.8 mm's) bends fairly easily. Sometimes I use a scheme of 6 or 8 lines, in which case I use groups of 3 or 2 laminated lines.
 
Thank you all for your replies and suggestions.

Just to clarify, here is what I have in mind:

LaminatedBinding.JPG

I'm pretty sure we can't bend the 0.6 x 2 mm strips horizontally, so I thought we could attach them to the binding strips and bend them together.

We have both HHG and fish glue in the drawer, but I do wonder if I can get a satisfactory bend without any moisture at all. I'm not saying we would soak the wood before bending, I've just found that I am more able to get the wood to do what I want it to when I give it a little steam (from a moist rag on the pipe) or water (from a spray bottle) during bending.

I've heard elsewhere that Titebond II or III can be used when you want to bend laminates, but I've never worked with either of them before.
 
Thank you all for your replies and suggestions.

Just to clarify, here is what I have in mind:

View attachment 41206

I'm pretty sure we can't bend the 0.6 x 2 mm strips horizontally, so I thought we could attach them to the binding strips and bend them together.

We have both HHG and fish glue in the drawer, but I do wonder if I can get a satisfactory bend without any moisture at all. I'm not saying we would soak the wood before bending, I've just found that I am more able to get the wood to do what I want it to when I give it a little steam (from a moist rag on the pipe) or water (from a spray bottle) during bending.

I've heard elsewhere that Titebond II or III can be used when you want to bend laminates, but I've never worked with either of them before.

I've done this type of bending several times in the past and I have used Titebond III. I even soaked the strips in water for 5 minutes and used a heat blanket and the glue did not release. You can't do that with HHG or fish glue.
 
The image you posted is a pretty common design Erich and I always use HHG to laminate them up like that, as well as to glue them to the body. I've bent them in both the form with a heat blanket and on the iron. NEVER using any water. They are thin enough that they don't require any.

I've not had any problems doing it this way at all.

On comercial ones I've bought I've had all kinds of failures. I presume that they are using some other sort of glue in the factory, as HHG would be too low tech for them.
 
Last edited:
I used to use Tite Bond 3, but now I bend all my strips on the bender when I bend my sides. I glue them on the ukes all at the same time now without any preglued sections. I never soked them either so maybe that helped as well.

Stephen
 
Top Bottom