Glues.

Holding things together. Making it possible to be adventurous in design, and to assemble objects in ways that would otherwise be impossible.

Wheat, fish, hide, mucilage, cyano-acrylate, epoxy, resorcinol, contact cement, hot melt, acrylics, urethanes, one part, two part, multipart, casein, polyvinyl acetate, and on and on..... For a bit more fun you can check the Wiki entry for glue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glue

While it is possible to design and build a piece of furniture without glue, it is far more common that glue is an integral part of the construction. And when it comes to repairing furniture, several types of glues may be used every day.


Today I worked on two chairs that had breaks, chips and some loose parts. Some of the loose parts I was not going to take apart (more on that kind of decision in another post). I used Hide glue, Yellow aliphatic (Titebond), and Cyanoacrylate glues.

Where I could dismantle and clean the joints and breaks, I used the yellow. Where I could not dismantle but had good “rub-in” access, I used warm hide glue. And where I had very little access but the joint needed firming up, I “injected” CA glue of two different viscosities.

Clamping completes the process. Proper clamping is an important part of a successful glue repair. Not clamping can lead to premature failure of a bond. The strength of a clamped joint is many times that of an unpressurized glue joint. Clamping can be complicated and especially difficult sometimes, but it is still necessary. It can make the break not break again.