44 Useful Gluing Tips and Tricks — The Family Handyman

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No-Mess Board Gluing

Tired of scraping dried glue from your workbench and clamps? Shop teacher John Nelson’s no-mess technique also ensures a flat finished surface when you’re edge gluing boards.

First, cover the clamps with newspaper. Then smooth glue on the board edges and lay them into the clamps without tightening. Fold the newspaper over both ends of the panel and lightly clamp 3/4-in. x 1-1/2 in. wide hardwood batten boards above and below each end with C-clamps. Now alternately tighten all the clamps (all the bar clamps first, then the C-clamps). The batten boards keep the boards from sliding up and down as you tighten the larger clamps, so the boards remain in the same alignment as the glue dries.

After 20 minutes, peel off the partially hardened glue on top of the panel with a paint scraper. The newspaper under the tabletop prevents the metal clamps from staining the wood where they touch glue, and it catches squeezed-out glue so the workbench stays clean.

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Glue + Sawdust = Wood Filler

When you need wood filler that matches the color of your project, mix some fine sawdust and glue together until it forms a paste, which you can use to fill small gaps and cracks. For best results, use sawdust from the same species of wood as your project; you can get some from the bag on your electric sander. Just don’t try this trick for large gaps or patches—they’ll stick out like a sore thumb.

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Handy Handscrews

Glued-up strips of wood like to drift as you tighten clamps. To prevent this, you can lightly snug a handscrew parallel across the edges as shown (don’t forget the wax paper) and then tighten the other two clamps for a perfectly aligned glue-up.