The recent and ongoing thread about Mortise and tenon
joints and possible benefits (or not) of pinning the
them, got me to thinking about the service lifetime of PVA
glues.

As far as I can remember, I have never seen the lifetime
mentioned in any literature or any where else, I posed the
question to Franklin, here is their reply.

"The expected service life of the Titebond II is not, at this point, well
defined as these types of adhesives have only been in existence since
the late 1940's. The service life of Titebond II, used in a well
designed joint, is expected to last as long as the wood used to
construct the project.

If you have any questions, please give me a call at 800-347-4583


Bob Behnke
Sr. Technical Specialist

Franklin International
2020 Bruck Street
Columbus, OH 43207"

I know from doing piano work that wood begins to lose its
elasticity after about 80 years and a lot of pianos of that
age will begin to be unable to maintain a tune for long at
the time or be unable to be brought into tune at all,
depending on the original quality of the piano and
conditions under which it was kept. I know there are
exceptions but they are few and far between.

This is not the type of failure that would ever be
noticable in an ordinary piece of furniture.

I try to build things that could reasonably be expected
to last 150 years and PVA seems to easily fit in that time frame.

I still like wedged and/or pinned joints, just in case.

basilisk