How to Make Your Own Furniture

Glues and Gluing

In any cabinet shop good glue is just as essential as screws for fastening joints. Furthermore it often holds where screws and nails will not.

There are many kinds of glue available, hot, cold, liquid, and powder, but the only kind that you need consider is the modern synthetic resin plastic glues such as Cascamite(tm) or Weldwood(tm).

If you use the powder type of glue it is mixed with cold water, a little at a time as needed. Thus there is very little waste and the glue is always fresh. It dries in a couple of hours, and sets thoroughly hard overnight, but the glued joints should be kept in clamps for at least 12 hours and preferably 24, to allow for thorough seasoning of the glue which then attains its maximum strength.

In gluing, the adhesive is mixed to a creamy consistency, and spread thinly over the two contacting surfaces of the joint. The joint is then assembled, and pressure applied.

The only exception to clamping is in the application of glue blocks. In this case the joint is freed of air bubbles, and proper contact is assured by rubbing the glued block back and forth in the angle between the two surfaces.

No clamp is needed, but if the piece is to be moved about, a small brad judiciously placed may prevent the weight of the block from dislodging it.

In any wood joint, the glue fills the pores of the wood and literally welds the two surfaces together. With the work properly glued and clamped, the joint will become stronger than the surrounding wood so that it cannot be broken apart. The glues mentioned, incidentally, are waterproof when once they have set.

Continued....From <a href=\"http://www.how-to-make-furniture.com/furniture.html\"><strong>\"How to Make Your Own Furniture\"</strong></a> By: Henry Lionel Williams

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