1

Wood glue is very specifically used for wood. How does wood glue bond differently compared to other glues like epoxy or Elmer's glue? I'm not talking about what makes wood glue unique or special (water-based, non-toxic) but rather the specifics of it's bond to wood from a technical perspective.

Note: The wood glue I have in mind is Tight Bond wood glue.

Community
  • 1
Programmer
  • 1,494
  • 4
  • 20
  • 34
  • 1
    This has been answered here – Jordan Bentley Dec 11 '15 at 02:43
  • I don't believe that answers my question (i even linked to it in my question). I'm inquiring about its bonding properties, such as making a chemical bond to the material vs other methods of adhesion. – Programmer Dec 11 '15 at 02:50
  • 1
    @Hooplehead24 I think it does answer your question (answer: it doesn't bond differently), unless you're asking how glue works in general compared to e.g. tape? – Jason C Dec 11 '15 at 04:48
  • @Hooplehead24 Would this be better in the chemistry stack exchange? – Jordan Bentley Dec 11 '15 at 04:56
  • 1
    Liquid glues tend to soak into wood, to some extent. Obviously that doesn't happen with nonporous materials; it also doesn't happen much with hot glue or tape gums (which is why those are removable). Outside of that...? – keshlam Dec 11 '15 at 05:15
  • Comment as this is just a guess, but as PVA is just a type of liquid plastic, I'd always thought it simply soaked into the surface and set, providing a mechanical bond over a huge micro-surface area (in the same way as chewing gum in hair does) rather than any chemical changes in the surface. – Whelkaholism Dec 11 '15 at 10:05
  • @JordanBentley you might be right that this would be better suited for Chemistry. However the answer that JasonC linked (you also posted the link to the question) states that wood glue is no different than craft glue in terms of bonding. The community seems to accept this as a useful answer. However, if it's no different then why don't we use craft glue when woodworking? – Programmer Dec 11 '15 at 14:07
  • Personally I feel that there must be a difference with how it bonds since using something like craft glue wouldn't work well with woodworking. Please feel free to disagree. If the community seems to agree that this has already been answered I will accept that. – Programmer Dec 11 '15 at 14:10
  • I found this paper about Adhesive Bonding To Wood that might have some answers? http://www.woodcenter.org/docs/tb1512.pdf – Programmer Dec 11 '15 at 14:13
  • For lack of more technical answers I'm going to mark this as a duplicate as well. – Programmer Dec 11 '15 at 15:49
  • There are a number of different adhesives used to glue wood, and different formulations within a family. One brand may offer hide glue, several versions of polyvinyl acitate with different open times or water resistance or whatever, one or more polyurethanes with similar variation, one or more cyanoacrylates ditto... A better question might be to ask about the trade-offs between various adhesives within and across families. – keshlam Dec 11 '15 at 23:11
  • 1
    This question is indeed not a duplicate since it asks a specific question that was not answered in its "duplicate". The question was neither asked nor did it evoke the answer that popped up in the US Forest Products Laboratory paper cited by @Hooplehead: The adhesive (PVA) sets when the water of the emulsion partially diffuses into the wood and the emulsified resin coagulates. There is no apparent chemical curing reaction, as with the thermosetting resins. – Ast Pace Dec 12 '15 at 21:08
  • Little bit of additional info here: http://www.franklinadhesivesandpolymers.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/7-13-15sticky-biz.pdf – Aloysius Defenestrate Dec 13 '15 at 21:52

0 Answers0