A few cracks along glue line. What glue to use?

[cool_98_555]

Hey guys.  I am working on a trilam (bamboo, padauk, osage), and after I got the bow roughed out before tillering I noticed the glue didn't sink in enough in a few small spots between the bamboo and padauk.  You can see in the picture one spot where this is happening.  Have any of you had this problem before?  What did you do to fix it?  I used titebond 3, and I could use it again to fill these gaps, but i'm wondering if superglue would be a better option.....what do you all think?

[Pat B]

Fill with super glue. If the voids are wide use a little fine saw dust as filler.

[cool_98_555]

Thanks for the suggestion Pat.  Has this happened to you before? Did superglue work for you?

[ntvbowyer1969]

What section of the bow is doing this? Fades,mid limb,? did you make sure to rough up both sides of the material you are going to glue together? I also degrease all parts of the lambs before i glue them up. After you ruffed them up did you do a sizing coat of titebond on the lambs? Make sure you do this to all lambs and let that coat dry before final gluing is done. I hope i am not insulting you by my suggestions i do not know your skill set or experience. I am only offering some of the things i do. As far as Pats comment i like his idea. try to clean out the dry chunks/pieces of titebond before squeezing in the titebond ca glue not wood glue. Hope it all works out for you bud. we all been there...

[cool_98_555]

Its near midlimb.  I always do a sizing coat before I do the main coat.  Sometimes I rough up the surfaces of the wood for gluing, sometimes I don't.  I heard that Titebond 3 needs smooth surfaces for gluing so I tried that.  I think the culprit was that the bamboo was not perfectly flat in a few areas and I thought it was.  The glue line between the padauk and osage is perfect all the way through the bow, so i think this may be the reason.

Has this happened to you before?  If so, did you apply superglue and did it work?

[ntvbowyer1969]

Yes i have had i happen. I cleaned up the titebond in the opening,scraped it out with a razor blade and sucked it out with a shop vac with the small attachment. I then applied tite bond CA . I use the thinner glue not the gel.The thinner glue gets down in the opening a lot better.i made sure when i applied the clamp i seen the glue backing out of the crack nice and even. I wiped off the excess and left clamped for a few hours. It says it sets up in 5min. I didnt bend the bow until the following day. My friend is still using the bow now.its about 4yrs old.

[Eric Krewson]

I have filled this type of gap a bunch of times, I fill with superglue but don't clamp as I find this unnecessary. None of my filled gaps ever opened again or failed.

[Pat B]

It has worked for me. Use thin super glue.

[Aaron H]

Yep, super glue.  The thinnest you can find.  It also helps to warm the stave/parts before glueing to help the glue penetrate deeper.

[hoosierf]

Same for me but i have gone back with Titebond after the ca to help with appearance since ca doesn’t fill well. That’s where a little sawdust worked into wood butter is a good plan.

[cool_98_555]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I shot the problem areas with superglue and let it dry completely.  Now all I have to do is sand it down and see what happens!