apply titebond to damp or dry wood ?????

[nick-p]

i read somewhere that you should apply titebond to water soaked timber... can't recall where i saw it..  i have always gone the dry route...  any opinions folks ?

[Howard Klepper]

Must be a misunderstanding somewhere in that.

[FRANK]

hunh

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Dampening timber before gluing is only useful when using polyurethane glues that harden consuming the water in the timber. For glues like Titeond, surfaces should be dry and clean. It's written on it!

[Tim Mace]

Gorilla glue yes..........Titebond NO!

[Russell Vance]

Nick,  practically speaking the replies are correct - apply Titebond glue to a clean dry surface.  Additionally, if you are using Titebond in an end grain gluing situation ( Titebond is unsuitable for this application) which is unavoidable you can dilute it with water to put an initial prep/wash coat of glue onto the end grain to be glued - this is followed soon after with a full strength glue coat and robust clamping.  This information was provided by Titebond but they stress:  - Titebond is unsuitable for endgrain gluing.

I think maybe damping/wetting end grain presentations and applying full strength glue may achieve a similar result of helping to limit the capillary action which starves a normal end grain joint.   Better to use a polyeurethane glue for this situation and, horrors of all horrors - we sometimes use both types of glue in the same joint if the surface area situation is marginal. 

[nick-p]

thanks to russell,tim,pierre,frank and howard for your educating responses..  i'm trying to find where i read it [ or mis-read it ! ].  it's gonna HAUNT me this one....nick