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Disassembling a joint

1348 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  mtenterprises
After gluing a drawer with Titebond 2 I later discovered that one if the dado joins was not pushed in completely. The glue has already cured overnight. I have used PVA glues (Titebond and others) for heat activated veneering and wondered if I could soften up the glue enough to fix the joint. I placed the iron on it for a minute or so, but it did not work, dado was probably filled with glue and the tenon would not go in. Instead I noticed that the joint became wobbly as the glue started to soften. I was able to pull the joint apart without breaking anything, clean and redo it. This was on a relatively thin (12 mm) stock with flat surfaces which made for good contact and efficient heat transfer. The iron was set on "linen". Perhaps on larger joins steam setting or wet towel might help as stream is a good heat carrier.

I hope this information could be useful.
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It might not work on long-grain joints. In your case, glue
penetration was probably undermined by a lot of end
grain to long train. In other words, with a mortise and
tenon joint it might not be so easy.

I have steamed joints apart. It is messy and unpleasant to
do but it works with white and yellow glues.

Also a hot pallet knife can be used to separate glue joints.
Instrument repair people have to use this method a lot.
I heat the knife on an electric hot plate and it is nice
to have two so you can heat one and use the other,
then switch. The method is less messy and damaging
than steaming joints apart.
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I wonder how those steam cleaners for clothes or hard surfaces would work in this application?
Yes you can heat it up and dissassemble it a heat gun works good. Also don't wait too long the glue will cure more. Been there one it.
MIKE
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