Removing Glue from Your Clamps the Easy Way

In spite of our best efforts to avoid it, we woodworkers seem to get a lot of glue on our clamps. Glue can impede the travel path for your clamps and cause problems when you are in the middle of a complicated glue-up. It can take a lot of elbow grease to remove the glue with a scraper or razor blade, and ultimately the shape of the clamp pipe or bar can make it nearly impossible to remove it all. Fortunately, George has come up with a simpler way to remove woodworkers glue from your clamps.
The process is straightforward:

Soak. Two approaches are shown to soaking your clamps. One method takes less setup, and the other is a more comprehensive approach that will do a better job of breaking down PVA glue.

Scrape. After the PVA glue is softened, it will be easy to remove with a paint scraper or similar tool.

Seal. To reduce the rate that glue build-up from recur, apply some GlideCote to your bars and pipes. In addition to reducing glue build-up, it will make the clamps function more smoothly.

After your clamps are clean, check out some more gluing and clamping tips.