Glue lines and staining

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HarryP

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South west France
Hello,
Firstly a congratualtions on your forum which is a great fund of information and most useful to an enthusiastic amateur like myself.
I have a specific problem which keeps on materialising and would greatly welcome some advice.
Over the last couple of years I have made a large number of items for our house in dowtown France using mainly oak and chestnut and have recently spent a considerable amount of time making a complex panelled coffre( blanket box in UK speak). The wood is chestnut and the glue used is Titebond poyurethane and I intend to stain the coffre using a mix of water-based stains.
Can anyone give me some advice on how to detect glue lines before staining as the consequence of missing a glue patch is disasterous? The stain takes on the open wood but not on the glue patch revealing a much lighter area where the grain has been blocked by the glue. I have tried using white spirit and turpentine as an indicator but since chestnut is such a light wood there is no contrast to indicate the potential problem. I have also tried pre-sealing the wood using a mild shellac mix
In most instances one can sand out the problem area and re-stain but with this item( the coffre) the panelling makes it a real problem.
Are there any master crafsmen out there who have cracked this type of problem, if so, any advice will be gratefully received
Regards HarryP
 
I don't class myself as a master craftsman (yet :lol: ) but one tirck I use is to lightly wet the area you're worried about. The stain resistant area, if any, will show up a different colour from the surrounding area. Not easy to see on light woods, but it does work. Then you just let the wood dry and finish with a very light sanding to rub down the raised grain.

Post a pic of your coffre when it's done!
 
If you find you've still missed a bit, wet sand some more stain over the offending glue line, with a fine abrasive mesh pad
 
Hello,
Many thanks for your advice. I have found that they work sometimes but not all. A contributary problem in this project was the fact that I have been staining a very light wood down to a very dark colour, so getting a perfect match has proven difficult.
However it is now finished and as requested here is a pic of the work minus an escutcheon which I am still waiting from UK. Glad to see the UK mail service is still as good as ever

coffre-4.jpg

regards HarryP[/img]
 
HarryP":90ek4x1j said:
Hello,
Many thanks for your advice. I have found that they work sometimes but not all. A contributary problem in this project was the fact that I have been staining a very light wood down to a very dark colour, so getting a perfect match has proven difficult.
However it is now finished and as requested here is a pic of the work minus an escutcheon which I am still waiting from UK. Glad to see the UK mail service is still as good as ever
coffre-2.jpg


regards HarryP

Hi Harry - the spaminator blocked your link (it wears off after you've made three or four posts)
What a fantastic looking piece :D - very impressive!

Andrew
 
the best advice is to use a pva glue or better still a hide glue. pu glue got a massive thumbs down in a recent fww article. you will find all of these easierto remove than pu esp hide. all the glues were much stronger than pu in both tight and slack joints.
 
Hello Dom,
No, I wish I could hand carve the panels, they were in fact made using a router gantry table I have designed Briefly the table covers about 1.5m(X) and 1m(Y) and the ends of the panels were cut in the x-y axis following a template and then finished with a sculpter's grounding punch. The cross-section of the panels, which are a similar curve to the ends, were cut in the z axis with the router following a vertical template and then sanded down. The router table has now become a bit of a general purpose device as I use it for all complex shaped cuts including M&T, dovetails and of course panelling.

Hello johnnyb
Thanks I will try and get my hands on this article

Harry
 

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