Hi,

I am building 4 mission style high chairs in red oak for the kitchen
counter. There are about 50 mortise and tenon joints in each one,
counting the spindles.

I have seen so many wobbly chairs in my life I am wondering if there is
a preferred glue to use in the joints. I use Titebond 2 as a rule, and
dont care for the foaming Gorilla glues, but would the expansion
characteristics of those be what I need?

thanks,

david

Gorilla glue is a bad idea because of clean-up. Titebond 2 will provide
adequate strength if the joints are milled properly (snug but not real tight
dry-fit) but you might consider Titebond III. Its more expensive and you
don't need the water-proof property but is gives you a longer open time
(about 15 vrs 5 minutes if I remember correctly.) Tiebond also makes a
slow-set but in my experience its not as readily available as the Type III.

"david blumberg" wrote in message
t...
Hi,

I am building 4 mission style high chairs in red oak for the kitchen
counter. There are about 50 mortise and tenon joints in each one,
counting the spindles.

I have seen so many wobbly chairs in my life I am wondering if there is
a preferred glue to use in the joints. I use Titebond 2 as a rule, and
dont care for the foaming Gorilla glues, but would the expansion
characteristics of those be what I need?

thanks,

david

david blumberg wrote:

I have seen so many wobbly chairs in my life I am wondering if there is
a preferred glue to use in the joints. I use Titebond 2 as a rule, and
dont care for the foaming Gorilla glues, but would the expansion
characteristics of those be what I need?

The foam from expanded poly glue has essentially zero strength. Poly
glue requires very tight-fitting joints to work properly.

You may want to consider over-drying the pieces with tenons, so that
when they come back up to proper moisture level they swell and lock
themselves into place.

Given that the chair will eventually need repairing, you might consider
a glue that is reversible. Hide glue, or plain white/yellow glue (the
non-waterproof kind) might make sense.

Chris

On Mon, 08 May 2006 15:59:41 GMT, david blumberg
wrote:

Hi,

I am building 4 mission style high chairs in red oak for the kitchen
counter. There are about 50 mortise and tenon joints in each one,
counting the spindles.

I have seen so many wobbly chairs in my life I am wondering if there is
a preferred glue to use in the joints. I use Titebond 2 as a rule, and
dont care for the foaming Gorilla glues, but would the expansion
characteristics of those be what I need?

thanks,

david


Yellow carpenter's glue, any popular brand, will do. Make sure all
your tenons fit snugly in the mortises, ie, do a dry fit before the
actual glue-up procedure. Wobbly chairs wobble mainly because they
were not made properly or they were put through abuse.

I've found a very good epoxy glue that can be ordered from Clearkote
Corp. (727) 898-8611. You can get it in quarts, one can resin and one
can hardener. One advantage to using it is that it doesn't require
much
clamping pressure to bond, and the bonding strength is comparable
to clamped aliphatic resin glue. You just mix two gobs of roughly the
same
size. Working time is from 20 minutes to 45 minutes depending on
temperature.