Experiences with wood glue ?

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electrosys

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I seem to remember once having a 1 litre tube of Evostick Wood Adhesive that I used for several years - had to unplug the nozzle a couple of times, but it had a pretty good working life.

I recently discovered ToolStation's D4 Waterproof Wood Glue - only £6 for a litre. Well pleased. That is, until I came to use it last week, when half of the tube had turned to jelly. Only started using it 6 weeks ago. £6 for half a litre isn't quite so good.

The label says this stuff has a shelf-life of 6 months (from the date of manufacture), and must be stored between 15 and 25 deg C to attain this 6 months. Must not be used or stored below 10 deg C.

So - what we're talking about is a glue which can only be used during the summer, and the whole 1 litre must be used the same summer. Well that's ok if you've got a lot of wood to glue - bit of a waste if you're just jobbing with it.

Seems that glue 'ain't what it used to be ...' ?
 
PCUK said:
Still using Cascamite. Lasts for ever if kept dry!
Click to expand...

I've not found any modern glue to beat it.

An aside: when I was a kid, I broke the leg off a chest of drawers while my parents were at work. Cascamite said 8 hours to cure, I had an hour or so before they came home. I turned up the central heating, and got every electic fire we owned into the room. Got the temperate up to over 120 °F (we didn't have Celsius in those days) and the glue was cured in under the hour. Years later when I got married, I kept the chest of drawers in my garage for tools. Over the years, all the other legs became loose, but not the one I fixed.
 
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Hi all, first post here after 20 yrs on and off of reading PBO so please go easy. I've used cascamite for virtually all wood to wood boat jobs over that time, since first seeing a Percy Blandford design. I thought it was the norm. It's cheapish, cheerful and does the job. Best still, lasts for ages and providing it's kept dy, as said, you can resurrect it like coffeemate.
 
Welcome to the asylum, Mike - where've you been ? Anyone who's been gluing wood for 20 years must have some interesting stories to tell. Hope you'll be posting some of them, now that you've broken your duck.:)


Ok - back to the D4 - ToolStation have kindly sent me a replacement 'gratis', so 10/10 for them, and I've already decanted the new 1 litre into smaller containers to keep the air away, as a crude fix for the rest of this year. Hopefully that's what the basic problem was. Evostick is much more expensive to buy, but may turn out cheaper in the long run.

So guys - tell me about Cascamite - has this stuff also changed over the years ? I've seen names like Extramite and Polymite banded about claiming to be the same stuff.
I wouldn't mind getting hold of a small amount of the original to try it - I've been told it's not so good for gap-filling - would it handle a gap of (say) 1.0 mm ok ?
 
nigelmercier said:
I've not found any modern glue to beat it.

An aside: when I was a kid, I broke the leg off a chest of drawers while my parents were at work. Cascamite said 8 hours to cure, I had an hour or so before they came home. I turned up the central heating, and got every electic fire we owned into the room. Got the temperate up to over 120 °F (we didn't have Celsius in those days) and the glue was cured in under the hour. Years later when I got married, I kept the chest of drawers in my garage for tools. Over the years, all the other legs became loose, but not the one I fixed.
Click to expand...

we used to "hot press" 8 X 4 laminate onto ply with cascamite, it took 4 minutes.
its all depends what temp the material is
 
I've just laminated 2 out of 3 curves for the boats trim, using Cascamite for the first time. I had intended using West epoxy. The C'mite did everything it said it would so I'm happy. Typically, 15 clamps over 2.1 metres of a 4 ply laminate were not quite enough. S*ds law I suppose.

The adhesive I got was supplied as a dry powder, 500g for about £9.50 off fleabay. If I can keep it dry it should last for years. :):)
 
brittle

only issue with cascamite is its brittle .Eg if you make a window frame and use it the joints have to be good if any gap filling ...naughty naughty ... catch it on a corner and the glue will fracture on all four corners
 
fergie_mac66 said:
only issue with cascamite is its brittle .Eg if you make a window frame and use it the joints have to be good if any gap filling ...naughty naughty ... catch it on a corner and the glue will fracture on all four corners
Click to expand...

Good point. What to use as an alternative if you want to 'doctor' a curve? The 2 bends I've made are L/H and R/H, supposedly identical... Yeah... I need a bit more curve on the 2nd bend and thought I might oick it round a bit more.

Is there a flexible glue that is completely waterproof?? :confused:
 
stuhaynes said:
Good point. What to use as an alternative if you want to 'doctor' a curve? The 2 bends I've made are L/H and R/H, supposedly identical... Yeah... I need a bit more curve on the 2nd bend and thought I might oick it round a bit more.

Is there a flexible glue that is completely waterproof?? :confused:
Click to expand...

should be very good for laminating . Was only pointing out that it has limitations and although is gap filling the gaps will be brittle .

It also should be mixed accurately, it is is subject to weaknesses when not mixed exactly to manufacturers spec.
 
Just to hedge the Cascamite compliments a bit. It's very good at water resistant (not water proof) applications - eg exterior joinery for building industry. Used for dinghy construction cos not much else available at the time; the better options (such as Cascophen) were much dearer. It was Ok for dinghies if they were taken out of water and covered when not in use. I glued up a tool box with Cascamite about 40 years ago and the dovetails gave way not too long ago. The glue had given up after long service in less than soggy conditions.
I use bottles of polyurethane adhesive (such as Balcotan). It's water and boil proof grade, mine has a decent shelf life and it foams up so will fill the odd gap.
 
Spuddy said:
Just to hedge the Cascamite compliments a bit. It's very good at water resistant (not water proof) applications - eg exterior joinery for building industry. Used for dinghy construction cos not much else available at the time; the better options (such as Cascophen) were much dearer. It was Ok for dinghies if they were taken out of water and covered when not in use. I glued up a tool box with Cascamite about 40 years ago and the dovetails gave way not too long ago. The glue had given up after long service in less than soggy conditions.
I use bottles of polyurethane adhesive (such as Balcotan). It's water and boil proof grade, mine has a decent shelf life and it foams up so will fill the odd gap.
Click to expand...

it is also filthy stuf in use
 
nigelmercier said:
Is that the same as Gorilla Glue? I had a bottle of this that I thought had gone off, as the bottle would not flex. I gave it a shake and the bloody thing exploded, showering everywhere with glue. It seems it had built up a high pressure, so be warned.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the Mr. Bean school of boat building :D
 
Cascamite (now also sold as Polymite)

I had to glue up a wooden mainsheet track mounting early last year (heavy wooden rail mounted on four angled wooden brackets). I was intending to use epoxy, but the weather was too cold for epoxy and there was no way of heating it all. I used Cascamite instead, and was very impressed by how easy it was to use, and how strong the resulting arrangement appeared to be. I had worried by how the visible white lines and fillets of the glue would look against the dark (mahogany?) wood, but varnished it's visible but not at all offensive.

Spurred on by this, I had a go at repairing an old guitar which had had the head broken off the neck. (I'd replaced the guitar, but it had been much too nice to throw away, but not valuable enough to warrant paying for a professional repair). The neck in the way of the break was very narrow, and it takes a lot of strain. The break was easily repaired with Cascamite, is almost invisble, and it has lasted.

It is now my wood glue of choice unless there's a particular reason to use something else.
 
Thanks for the welcome electrosys. The last tub of Cascamite I bought was just from the local building supplies place but other than being in a plastic tub seems to still be essentially the same stuff as came in a tin years ago. Easy enough to come by so never tried the 'soundalike' products. Works best in a thin sheen when there is a lot of surface area in contact (like dinghy chines and gunwales or laminating). You need to make sure that all the powder's properly mixed to a consistent paste. Mop up any drips asap because it sets solid. As already said though, it does chip and shatter, and isn't going to stand up to all conditions. For interior work and dinghies it's been good enough for the job. Similarly my tiller's laminated up using cascamite, but again it's not permanently exposed to the ravages of the British weather.

Never used Balcotan / Collano Semparoc etc but did use something similar once to make up a replacement chain locker lid from ply and softwood after the original GRP one was lost in the sea. Those bonds still seemed to be okay after four years of exposure to salt water and rain. I do remember it as being relatively expensive and quite nasty stuff though. Bizarrely, some of the most stubborn bonds I've come across recently are those where building products have been used - gripfill, no more nails kind of things. I'm not sure what some bright spark stuck a thick chipboard kitchen worktop onto the GRP galley moulding with on my boat but I don't think even Armageddon would shift it.
electrosys said:
Welcome to the asylum, Mike - where've you been ? Anyone who's been gluing wood for 20 years must have some interesting stories to tell. Hope you'll be posting some of them, now that you've broken your duck.:)


Ok - back to the D4 - ToolStation have kindly sent me a replacement 'gratis', so 10/10 for them, and I've already decanted the new 1 litre into smaller containers to keep the air away, as a crude fix for the rest of this year. Hopefully that's what the basic problem was. Evostick is much more expensive to buy, but may turn out cheaper in the long run.

So guys - tell me about Cascamite - has this stuff also changed over the years ? I've seen names like Extramite and Polymite banded about claiming to be the same stuff.
I wouldn't mind getting hold of a small amount of the original to try it - I've been told it's not so good for gap-filling - would it handle a gap of (say) 1.0 mm ok ?
Click to expand...
 
nigelmercier said:
I turned up the central heating, and got every electic fire we owned into the room. Got the temperate up to over 120 °F (we didn't have Celsius in those days) and the glue was cured in under the hour.
Click to expand...

Presumably your parents wondered why you'd installed a Turkish Sauna in the front room..? :confused::)
 
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