: I recycled some old tongue and groove siding to make strips for the Great Auk
: I'm building. The wood is absolutely clear, has a reddish tint and is very
: uniform in color. Its light and brittle. I assumed it is Western Red
: Cedar, but wonder if it could be Redwood. I have 9' lengths and am
: scarfing a few strips to start. I made a 'shooting board' to plane 2"
: scarfs. My problem is that they don't want to stay glued. I started with
: Titebond II. When it didn't stick at all after two hours in the clamps I
: went out and bought a new bottle. When that didn't work any better I
: bought Elmer's Carpenter's Glue; same result. I have some tests drying
: overnight, but I'm afraid they won't take much bending. I tried the joints
: straight from the plane, and lightly sanded. The temperature is in the 70s
: with medium humidity. Clamp pressure is moderate. Both glues work fine on
: fir. Could I have some wood/glue incompatibility? Suggestions of
: identifying my wood and glues to stick it together would be appreciated.

Hi Mike

Boy, that's a new one on me. I didn't know there was a wood that wouldn't stick with elmers, or Titebond. Some are oily and are stubborn, meaning the joint must be cleaned first with solvent, but, those are some pretty exotic and heavy woods.

About the only problem with a glue not working would be it's age and if it has started to seperate. Elmers and Titebond ( and II ) will seperate with age. I've seen it go about a year before going bad. Then it will give you no end of problems.

The wood..........That is another story. I don't know all the exotics, but, redwood, cedar, pine, and fir shouldn't give you any trouble with glueing. If you've gotten some kind of hardwood, with very closed grain, then maybe you won't get it to stick. But, like I said, I'm not familliar with all of them. It is also possible that the siding may have been treated with some kind of wood preservative, water seal or the like. Since those are oil based, the glue would find it difficult to bond to it. That would be my guess. The discription sounds like redwood, and if so, they may have used a preservative to keep the red color uniform. Can you smell any kind of oily scent to it, of does it goo up your blade when you cut it? Any other ideas out there??

Rehd