All About Glue

When you’re ready to start on a project, you carefully choose the material, you develop a plan, and you think about what finish you’ll use.

Well, you should give just as much thought to the glue you’ll use and how you’ll use it!

There are many great types of glue in the marketplace, and they have a variety of characteristics. Fast and slow dry times, waterproof or not, able to bond dissimilar materials, can cure in the presence of moisture…. You don’t need a chemistry lesson to understand glue – you just need this class.

Today’s glues are amazing!

As long as your joinery is sound, today’s glues are stronger than the material you’re putting together. Your instructor, George Vondriska, will provide two great demos to prove it to you. It’s more common to see the material on each side of a glue joint fail than it is to see the joint fail.

Choosing your glue

Yellow glue, white glue, polyurethane…. Where does each of these glues fit into your woodworking and your shop? How about hide glue? Cyanoacrylate? There are so many glue choices. In addition to providing you with characteristics of a variety of glues within the video, you’ll get a printable reference sheet you can take into the shop to help you dial in the right glue choice.

Getting glue on, and off

Getting the right amount of glue in the joint and getting it in JUST the right spot can be tricky. Direct from the bottle, brushes, customized applicators… what’s the best approach? It depends on the circumstances. And if the glue squeezes out, then what? We’ve got tricks and tips covering that, too.

George Vondriska

Formally trained as a Technology Education teacher, George Vondriska has been teaching woodworking since 1986, and has been the Managing Editor of Woodworkers Guild of America since 2007. In addition to teaching classes at his own Vondriska Woodworks School, George teaches at woodworking shows across the country and has taught woodworking for the Peace Corps/Swaziland, Andersen Window, Northwest Airlines, and the Pentagon. George has had numerous magazine articles published, from tool reviews to shop improvement projects.

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