Tite Bond glue for a 27' strip plank hull?

Quick Note, My Father worked for Franklin Ind. the company that makes the label Tight Bond wood glue. Even though they laid him off I will highly recommend that product after seeing the after-math of tornado alleys. Houses built with Tight Bond faird much better to those with nails and screws at various frame parts. The "two by fours" would split in two, or at the grain before the glue bond broke. Tight Bond is the only non two-part adhisive I would ever use on wood.

 

CaptainJason, I wonder how those houses would have fair if they were built well enough to float and had TiteBond in the joints? TiteBond, as mentioned, isn't a structural adhesive, though can be quite strong in some applications. It can't take the marine environment and is the whole point of using it on a boat.

 

PAR is absolutely right. Titebond is strong under more relaxed conditions, very strong. So is Crazy glue. Hide glue is so strong, we used to paint designs on glass with it, and when it dried, ping-ping! The shrinkage would pull chips out and leave an embossed design on the glass!
Sure, a dry-sailed glass-sheathed canoe is a good candidate for such a handy glue as Titebond.
I recommend you do this: join the end of two pieces of wood 1/4"x1/4" in section, about 12" long, using epoxy on one and Titebond on the other.
See which breaks at the joint.
Then do the same experiment except at right angles, making a tee. Again break it.
Now again end to end, but lapped 1/4". Leave in a bucket for a few days and then overhang it an inch past the lap over the bench and clamp a weight close to the lap. Not enough to break the wood, but almost. Do this 50 times, or until one breaks.
If the Titebond does half as well as the epoxy, you've got a convert.
Might as well try Gorilla glue too, which would be my comprimise choice.

Alan

 

theres no substitute for 2 part epoxy

like i mentioned in my post tight bond is the only one part i would ever use on wood. I would not esitate to use tight bond on any enterior or glass over plank/tight bond construction. If your glassing the outside of the hull. If not your right on. I never meant to suggest that tight bode is marine grade. However i did want to testify the streght of there product. Thank you for th response because i would not want to be the cause of a major maritime incident, when a mariners vessel decides to melt at the seams.

 

Alan and Par

Tight bond is not marine grade. Do not use anywhere this product will be exposed to salt water. Thank you both for the posts again.

 

I apologize if I wasn't clear. There's a difference between a boat in which 60k in time/matls. has been invested, that is likely to spend ten full years of time submerged in water under pressure, subject to possibly being scraped through to bare wood weeks before the owner is aware of it, that may have a bilge also containing water, possibly for extended periods, and a trailered skiff or canoe.
Same boat might be raced offshore, or cruised long distances, struck by containers, other boats, owned one day by a fool who lets maintainence go, repaired by a yard interested in profit alone...

But yes, in your good care, CJ, I don't see a big problem.
I've owned a few boats over the years. Ones other people built or maintained (or didn't). One with a balsa deck core that probably never saw a drop of water for its first ten years (that deck had to be drilled and dried for several weeks under cover, recored in places, rejacketed/ blocked at all attachement points, and refinished. Five gallons of epoxy and a year later, it was strong enough to stand on.
Then there was an IOR 1/2 ton, which had been modified to make a lazerette across the cockpit. The work was top notch. Beautiful filleting, all epoxy sheathing---- this had been done by a man whose name you'd know, who has written articles in Cruising World on marine safety.
The problem was that somehow, water HAD gotten into the ply core of the lazerette, and half of it was completely rotten. How? A small hole, I think.
one must bear in mind that what keeps water out keeps water in---- but WHERE is that water? In the case of a stripper, it will likely be wherever any small crack or void has allowed it to go. Maybe it was bilge water. maybe a single screw poked through low in the bilge. Then how did it spread? What limited its migration? What happened when it froze during winter layup, or when the sun heated it during the day and then the night cooled it for five years while it sat in someone's yard because it wasn't sailed?
Someone who's worked on boats for years can tell you how it's never the new boat, or the frequently inspected boat, or the one used at the builder's Viking funeral. Mother nature is patient. All boats, or nearly all, will eventually fall into the hands of someone who fails to recognize the immense responsibilty involved in everything they put their usually inexperienced hands to that will eventually decide the boats fate, sometimes with people aboard far from a safe port.

A.

 

I used Tite-Bond-II on the recommendation of the glue manufacturer on the 32x32 foot Gambrel-Roof barn I built 4 years ago. Here's a look at the Tite-bonded gussets on the roof structure:
http://terryking.us/photos/barn/2www-barn1-2004/
(3rd photo over)... The gussets have a pattern of hardened steel masonry nails and Tite-Bond-II and the Engineering says 200 pounds per square foot snow load (This is Vermont near New Hampshire border).

Of course, these joints will not be soaked, unless some future idiots don't keep the roof in repair.

Boat-RelatedNess: there are two 30 foot by 14 foot open bays with 12 foot overhead clearance. What could I build in there??

 

Hey Terry----- you anywhere near Pittsburg? Canaan Dam? Guildhall?

A.

 

Hi Alan, It's Topsham (VT, not ME!) near Bradford, 1/2Hr North of 89 off 91. I'll be back in the USA in 3 weeks! Getting that old boat in Lake Champlain one more time.

 

I sailed on Champlain just once a couple years ago--- Burlington. Looks like a great place. Lots of destinations across that puddle.
I was thinking about the Connecticutt river between Vermont and New Hampshire--- rafted down from the Canadian border about 60 miles. Years ago. That's a trip!

A.

 

Other then lacking being a true water proof glue, TiteBond is the wrong type of glue for structural elements, such as futtocks, frame gussets, stringer scarfs, beam and frame lamination, etc. It is fine on furniture and roof trusses as they accept static loads, with minimum dynamic loading. The adhesive just plane sucks at shock loads and of course isn't water proof. Frankly, it has no place aboard any board, even the interior of a vessel will eventually have enough moisture gain, to cause sheering along the glue line from the weakened bond.

Check the label folks, it clearly states what it's capable of and what it isn't. Comparing it to land based wooden structures isn't comparing apples to apples. Land based structures have limited, if any at all dynamic or shock loading to absorb. Hell, Super Glue could be used in many of these applications, but don't try it on a boat that may fall off a wave sideways and crash down on her beam ends, or pound her way to windward in a heavy slosh, or fly off every third wave in a planning craft. It's just plain irresponsible to suggest it has qualities and physical properties other then what it really has.

 

Glue and Water

Champlain is wonderful, especially if you can run into the gunk holes, read the charts, and are willing to get into the water yourself to check out a small anchorage. Then there's the 200 feet deep parts... I have to put my canoe into the Connecticut more.. this Summer for sure..

PAR, sorry for the side trip here "Humans are only off-topic when they're dead! "

I think we're all in agreement that TiteBond isn't suitable for boats...

 

Wow!....When in doubt read the label? Profound.
This thread has come a long way.

(Sorry Par, that wasn't aimed at you. You were instrumental
in me making well thought thru decisions with my project.)
Time will tell whether the deviations were prudent or not.

 

I have lots of profound statements I like to employ, from time to time.

"Tip of the Day" - Do not take a laxative and a sleeping pill on the same night . . .

 

I don't know if you can get in in the US, but there's a polyurethane glue called Balcotan that's a really excellent boatbuilding glue, and cheaper than epoxy. I'd use in it strip planking. It's one-part, comes in two different setting times, there's a fibre-thickened variety for big gaps, it's not sensitive to temperature like epoxies are, you can clean it up with water... And I don't work for them, although I am beginning to sound like an advert.