titebond 3 glue

I'm building a small 12 foot boat from luaun, gluing it with titebond 3 (green bottle, says waterproof). I've had great success with titebond 2 when building guitars, so I decided to use this for the boat. It's also a lot cheaper than epoxy. Has anyone else used this glue here? Is it recommended, or not?

 

A rather poor choice!

It is (according to the manufacturers datasheets) NOT suitable for boatbuilding.

And btw. it is far more expensive than epoxy.

Regards
Richard

 

Thanks for the reply. Do you know exactly what makes it a poor choice for boat building? I picked it up for 6 bucks for a nice sized bottle, whereas the only epoxy I was able to find was three times that. I'm probably shopping in the wrong place.

 

Ah, I searched and found an 11 page thread on titebond 3. My apologies, I should have done that before.

 

What type of boat are you building?

 

Just a simple 12 foot dinghy that will have a 5 horse outboard and possibly a small sail, for calm water use.

 

What thickness is your luan? How well will the luan stand up to being submerged? I always thought it was used for making interior doors.

 

Here is a link to an article from Chesapeake Light Craft about using luan:
http://www.clcboats.com/shoptips/stitch_glue/lauan_plywood.html

Might be worth a read.

Cheers!

 

1/4 inch thick, with a layer of fiberglass and a bunch of epoxy on the outside, and then multiple layers of exterior enamel on top of that, and on the inside as well. Thanks for the link. I know luaun isn't top of the line stuff, but plenty of people have built small boats out of it without fiberglassing anything other than the seams and the little boats have lasted for years. Rest assured though, years down the road when I build a 20-something foot sharpie, I'm spending the money on marine grade plywood.

 

Low Interest Luans

Luan is Great. I used to get 4 x8 ft sheets of 1/2 inch at Homy Depot but they stopped carring it. Maybe if we all got together andpetitioned them they would bring it back.

I used good old Elmers Yellow Carpenter Glue to build a couple hardtops with great sucess.

It is strong, easy to work with, No-Toxic and cleans up with a damp sponge.

What are you ging to name your dingy?

I Called a 12 ft that I had for a few years "Row-Dent"

allways wanted to build a 24 ft Wood Semi-Submersable Scow Barge when I was Commercial Sea Urchin Diving: Paint it Floresent Green and call it "Lil' Prick"


I bet you could even bed up that Luan to make some water skis?

 

We're naming it "arrogant *******", after the beer. I've got a small coaster with the arrogant ******* logo and gargoyle on it, and that's going to be epoxied to the inside of the boat somewhere and covered in varnish.

 

I have used Titebond III for several years with success, I haven't had a joint failure yet. But there are some caveats:

Joints must be well fitted, and it will vanish into end grain long before it hardens.

It will resist water for a while, but once the wood gets soaked it will lose most of its grip and may pull out under stress. However, if it is not stressed, when the wood dries out it seems to regain most or all of its holding power. I would not trust Titebond III on a boat that is left in the water for long periods.

By comparison, epoxy seems to hold even if the wood is soaked.

I use titebond III freely for joints above the waterline, and interior joints below the waterline. Exterior joints below the waterline are epoxied. Titebond is at least as strong as the okoume ply and softwoods I use.

Hope this is of help to you!

 

Definitely helps, thanks! Unfortunately I did all the main outside joints with it before I read this. Fortunately though, there's a layer of fiberglass and a hefty bit of epoxy on the outside of all joints, and then I made sure to put the exterior enamel on pretty thickly, too. The boat spends about an hour or two in the water, that's it, then it sits in my carport, so I think I'm safe in terms of water soak. This boat will never be in the water for more than a couple hours at a time, and it's always stored in a dry carport. It's finally done, for the most part. I just have one little board on the top/rear of the main seat to attach, mostly just for looks, and a little bit of touch up painting on the grip rail thingies. It's a fun little boat! No propulsion yet other than some small oars that I made, so until I get a small outboard and/or sail setup on there it's not getting used too heavily. This is my first ever boat though, and I love it. I didn't use any plans to build it, I just studied basic plans I found online and "winged it". I had some leftover hardwoods (koa, bubinga, figured maple, teak, and purpleheart) and did kind of a "wood floor" covering for the front of the boat. Really turned out pretty. The seats are redwood.