Anbody used this?

[Grahame Myers]

Has anybody any experience with Titebond Polyurethane glue? I have just ordered some to tryout, as it's much cheaper than Gorilla glue here in Germany. How does it compare to Gorilla glue? Any other pro/cons?

Grahame

[Dave Yelverton]

Never used it Grahame, but here's a link to their data sheet:
http://www.titebond.com.au/PDFs/PolyurethaneGlue_data.pdf

Doesn't say too much about using it however. PU glues I've encountered require one surface to be moist, i.e. dampened with water, which has discouraged me from trying it with double tops. However, if Titebond doesn't have that requirement, I could use it. Anyone know?

Dave

[Tim Warn]

I make hunting knives and use it all the time to glue stag handles to steel. Seems to hold real well. That being said, I have never tried it on a guitar.

[Tim Mace]

This is one of the wet the surface types.Not as strong as Gorilla but probably as difficult to separate pieces if need be.

[Rob Mercure]

To echo what Tim noted this is probably going to be one of the expanding glues that are about a permanent a bond as one could want - and probably more permanent than an instrument builder would want for any part that might need to be someday separated. There was a trick for using expoxy, might have read about it in one of Erlewine's books, of using a thin piece of "sacrificial" wood between items bonded with epoxy. That way the sacrificial piece could be split if necessary (such as bonding a thin piece of maple to a rosewood bridge and then bonding the maple to the guitar top). This might help if you're going to use the polyU glue for anything that may need future adjustment.

Rob

[Grahame Myers]

I ordered it because I was curious after reading so much about Gorilla glue, and I have a chinese Ovation copy with a really badly made neck/body joint. I bought it for €20 from a customer that originally wanted to have it repaired, but was shocked by how much I quoted him for the job, much more than he'd paid for it, and much more than it's worth.
I was concidering using the gap-filling properties of Poly glue to achieve a stable joint: the guitar is a cheap copy with a plywood top that really isn't worth the time and effort to do the mortice/ tenon joint properly with replacement wood to make the fit better. In this case it's unlikely that anyone will ever want to seperate the neck/body joint in 30 years or so to do a neck reset :-) After examining the joint and the glue they used after the cleanup up I'm convinced that it only failed because of cheap glue, and too little of it. I think that with a strong adhesive generously applied it should hold up.
If it's successful I'll think about using it for repairs on cheapo instruments where the cost of normal good luthier work isn't an option due to the instrument price/ repair cost relationship. I would be able to give the customer an alternative to the normal repair methods which often exceed the cost of the instrument itself. I'm not happy about the way these cheapo junk guitars are flooding the market, but I guess we have to react to the changing market and offer cheap repairs for cheap guitars :-) At the moment it's just an idea, I'll know more after seeing how the china Ovation turns out.

Grahame

[Russell Vance]

I use it from time to time as do my colleagues in the furniture industry - basically it's expanding poly and used a lot in production processes - I use it dry - the moisture factor is only an issue if you have very dry wood and low humidity and the production guys have controlled moisture input to the substrate to speed up the 'set' process, which is also under pressure which activates the fixing of the glue.

Its good stuff for sheeting and has good endgrain penetration but I don't use it for general guitar assembly - it's mainly for difficult or synthetic component repairs as it has a gap filling capability which sets reasonably well (read Ovations). Cons are - it's messy stuff - i mask with brown plastic box packing tape and tear it off before the stuff has set. Removing it once it has set is a knife and chisel sort of experience you don't want to have. Also, it's a one way trip - it's a good permanent bond. Very useful to have in the difficult repair "toolbox". Regards, Rusty.