Description
If you’ve ever glued layers of wood together, you know how frustrating and time consuming it can be to spread on glue. Sometimes you have enough time to get everything covered before the first part starts drying…and sometimes you don’t.
But here's something you might not realize. When gluing wood together, more glue doesn't necessarily mean a stronger joint. But you also don't want to scrape so much off that there's not enough left to make a good bond. That's one way you can end up with what's called a glue-starved joint.
In fact, Titebond recommends a minimum glue spread of approximately 6 thousandths of an inch…or about two sheets of ordinary printer paper stacked together…for their Original wood glue. Of course, that's the average thickness of the wet glue before you bring the two pieces together and clamp them.
Another problem with wood glue is the open assembly time. With Titebond Original as our example, that's only about 4 to 6 minutes. The faster you can spread the glue, the more time you have to get everything assembled. So when you have a large, wide-faced glue-up, skip the brush and go with a squeegee.
A few years ago, I got this set of silicone squeegees from Amazon to spread glue quickly before it starts to dry. I even made a Bitesize video about them, but this time, I’m taking a suggestion from one of the comments on that video and turning this humble little squeegee into a silicone notched trowel. And for those that don’t know, a notched trowel has all these little notches along the edge that allow a controlled amount of glue to pass through, leaving behind little ridges instead of scraping it all away.
To make it, I took a two dollar plastic trowel and cut off one edge. You can use a pair of C-clamps to attach it, but I went with a vise. Line up the edge of the notches with the edge of the squeegee and you’re ready to start.
If you’re going to do this, go with a single bevel blade and not a knife. Single bevel blades will register with the trowel notch slopes and allow you to use it as a template.
After cutting one side, I flip the blade over and cut the opposite until the little silicone piece pops out. And really, if you want the easiest method I found to doing this, pull the blade against the plastic points which will give you a rigid surface.
And this is it. It’s not pretty but we’ll give it a try.
What I like about this redesigned squeegee is that it still spreads glue pretty quickly, and I can still easily peel off the dried glue. But now, those little notches allow more glue to pass underneath, helping prevent me from scraping too much off. I can get the glue on quickly while reducing the risk of starving the joint when I bring the pieces together.
Link in the description:
* Glue Squeegee → https://link.amazon/B0fIJeKym
Kiridashi knife → https://amzn.to/39rDlul
* Quick note about the glue squeegee. They stopped selling the set I have on amazon. I do believe that this one is just as good and will work fine. I have _not_ purchased it though.
As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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