# Glue type for oily exotics



## Aurora North (Nov 7, 2014)

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for the definitive, time proven, environment stable solution to gluing up oily exotic woods. 

I have mostly only used domestics and titebond 2 works fine. Now I'm going to be gluing up oily woods to domestic types and different exotics to each other.

I was just wondering what type of glue you all use for this. I do know to wipe with acetone first to drive the oils away. But what glue type is suitable for the life of the piece? I'm going for built to last without exception.


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## haddenhailers (Nov 7, 2014)

I've always used five minute epoxy on my calls. I don't ever plan on it moving at all. I joined wood to wood, wood to corian, and wood to metal. Seems to work great!

Hope that helps,

Andrew

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Aurora North (Nov 7, 2014)

Hey hadden,

Thanks for the reply. I have used epoxy a couple times also. I'll probably do that again but I was just curious if there was a good wood glue formulated for oily woods. Cheaper, less stress on the work time, and I don't have to smell epoxy. Especially for doing larger things. Though there are slower drying epoxies so time isn't an issue the price steepens up when needing a lot of it.


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## DKMD (Nov 7, 2014)

What are you making? Any chance you can use joinery as a primary and glue as a backup?


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## Aurora North (Nov 7, 2014)

It's going to be for an end grain chess board using ebony and masur birch. But I'm also curious just for the sake of knowing what glues work best for oily wood types. If this was cabinetry frames and doors I would use an integral MT. 

Also would like to know for doing glue ups to be used for boxes and such.


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## DKMD (Nov 7, 2014)

I think you'd be fine with just about any typical glue with ebony and birch... I guess I don't think of either being oily. 

I'd probably use epoxy for oily species for something like that, but I wonder how something like gorilla glue would work with oily wood... I don't have any experience using it for that application, but it sounds interesting.


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## Aurora North (Nov 7, 2014)

We used gorilla glue at my shop for a pool house kitchen on 5/4 ipe. Real pain in the butt because it foams and expands. The other thing was that the guys were wiping down the wood with water only and not acetone.

It was oil finished with calbots (the good stuff - NOT that water crap they're trying to pass off these days since the company was bought out). 

I have to say I have never seen so much repair needing to be done within a few months of it being installed. 

Granted, we did tell the owner he needed to keep the roll down windows around the kitchen closed when not in use to protect from the rain and that wasn't being done. We went over there and saw the cabinets just soaked with water and some built in bench seats with puddles of water sitting on them. 

So somewhat hard to say for sure if the gorilla glue was right for the job. In my mind not using acetone first was a big mistake.

Second was the fact that the cabinetry was often being left exposed to thunderstorms and full NJ summer humidity (100% days)

Third... I was suspect about going with the calbots oil finish. It's great stuff for decks and all but I felt like we should have used a marine type spray finish or spar varnish. 

But I was 25 at the time, lowest on the totem pole, surrounded by guys with decades of cabinetry experience, so assumed they knew better.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Mrfish55 (Nov 7, 2014)

I use G2 epoxy on tricky wood, long set time but very strong bond, it's my go to glue when working with oily wood or items that will see heavy use, any box I do in yellow cedar is done in G2 due to the oils, wiped with acetone first, so far excellent results.


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## Keith (Nov 7, 2014)

NexaBond works great too, it's fairly new, but I tried it with some olivewood and it works quite well.


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## Aurora North (Nov 7, 2014)

Fish, thanks for the post man. I'm going to check into it. 

Kieth is that similar to CA glue with how it wicks into the grain or is it fairly thick like the medium CA?


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## Keith (Nov 7, 2014)

Aurora, it is a CA glue, and from what I have read, it is specifically designed fro wood, especially exotics, and oily woods. We did a shop experiment with it, after talking to the Woodcraft guys. We glued 2 pieces of maple end grain to end grain and it was virtually impossible to break the glue joint. It took a 3 pound hammer and a vice to break it. There are 3 different "grades" not so much on a consistency side, but more so on the working time. the lower the number the shorter the working time.


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## Aurora North (Nov 8, 2014)

Kieth,

Awesome man! I'm going to pick some up and give it a go. I'll try the epoxies also and see which one is easier to work with. I think for bigger projects the epoxy and for the small boxes I'm doing the nexabond will be just fine. 

Guys I appreciate your insight so much. Can't thank you all enough. 

If anyone else has info on other products they have used post away. Hopefully this thread helps everyone else too!


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## DLJeffs (Nov 8, 2014)

If anyone is ever looking for an extremely versatile, flexible epoxy try West Systems G/Flex epoxy. My waterproof backpack had some seams coming apart. A guy on a fishing board recommended G/Flex. I mixed up a batch and clamped the loose seams with wax paper to prevent my wood shims from sticking. Worked great even on the rubberized surfaces of the pack. Stays very flexible.
http://i.Rule #2/6zsaThT.jpg 

http://i.Rule #2/aDFRGLj.jpg 

http://i.Rule #2/CqeonKD.jpg


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## CodyC (Dec 4, 2014)

A Fine Woodworking test a couple or so years back found TBIII worked very well on oily exotics. I think it was second only to two-part epoxy. I've been using it exclusively ever since without a glue failure, even on exotics like Cocobolo. A wipe with acetone will remove the surface oils before applying glue.


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## Cody Killgore (Dec 4, 2014)

DLJeffs said:


> If anyone is ever looking for an extremely versatile, flexible epoxy try West Systems G/Flex epoxy. My waterproof backpack had some seams coming apart. A guy on a fishing board recommended G/Flex. I mixed up a batch and clamped the loose seams with wax paper to prevent my wood shims from sticking. Worked great even on the rubberized surfaces of the pack. Stays very flexible.
> http://i.Rule #2/6zsaThT.jpg
> 
> http://i.Rule #2/aDFRGLj.jpg
> ...




Couldn't agree more with this. Gflex is the epoxy I use to attach knife handles with. It doesn't get much better than this stuff. Also because it is toughened, it can move slightly with the wood as moisture content changes.


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## Kevin (Dec 4, 2014)



Reactions: Way Cool 1


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