Titebond Original Clamp time 30 Min. really

Greetings,

This is not about gluing up ukuleles but it is a table meant for recording the uke in my wife's office.

Titebond Original directions say clamp for at least 30 minutes. Do you experienced builders go with that or longer. I am out of bar clamps and need to make another support like the 2 shown and would like to glue up the third tonight. They have been drying for about 2 hours. Can I really unclamp one and use the clamps on the third support tonight? By the way, I have 2 dowels at each joint in addition to the glue.



Thanks

If they've been clamped 2 hours, that's plenty of time unless the curing conditions are bad (like it's too cold in the space or whatever). I would go ahead and unclamp if you want to do another one. It doesn't hurt to leave things clamped for longer than necessary, of course, if you're concerned. Don't stress the joints for 24 hours.

Thanks for the reply. Now I'll have to leave the couch and head to the basement to finish up.

Yeah, you are good to go after 30 minutes with that application. However, with high stress joins like necks or especially bridges, I wait the full 24 hours. I have had exactly one (1) glue failure with Titebond and that was my fault. It was a side to end block glue-up and I jacked it into a mold with a lot of springback after just 20 or so minutes and it came apart. The join was also glue starved when I looked at it. These modern aliphatic glues are pretty amazing. Like DuPont Chemical Company and Timothy Leary said, "Better living through chemistry!"

Doug W said:

Thanks for the reply. Now I'll have to leave the couch and head to the basement to finish up.

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I've found that to be the most difficult part of any project.