
Have you done a simple builder’s test of your favorite wood glue
to see if it can be re-glued successfully should either your
work be damaged, or a cross-grain glue joint fail with age and
seasonal movement?
On identical tiles of freshly planed, vertical grain,
second-growth Doug Fir, I saturated the faying surfaces with
glue and let them cure to full strength by the manufacturer’s
instructions for time and temperature.
Then I keyed each faying surface with 100-grit abrasive paper,
re-glued them with marine epoxy, and “clamped” the assemblies to
the degree favored by epoxy.
For glues that left a rough
surface like polyurethane, the epoxy was applied twice… an unthickened coat followed by a second coat thickened with West
404 High-Adhesive Thickener, per the manufacturer’s
instructions. I let the epoxy cure for 6 days to reach
full strength.


I purposely chose
small blocks of wood with easily broken short grain because
strength here isn’t the issue, adherence is, and I can check
adherence using a sharp chisel without trying to break long glue
joints in a press. Of greater concern was that the glues
to be tested were applied without any clamping pressure, but as
it turned out, several glues that require high clamping pressure
fared very well, so I believe the results are reasonably valid.