Sticky question

[J.A.P.]

Howdy Folks,

I have been using Titebond glue for awhile and recently have had trouble with some ebony point protectors not staying put. I'm considering trying LMI's (white) instrument glue. Does anyone have experience with this stuff and care to give it a review?

Thanks,
J.A.P.

[Chris Baird]

It is hard to get ebony to glue to anything using any glue. But I've had the most success gluing small ebony parts with epoxy.

[Gavin Baird]

Cyano acrylic is the way to go..bonds to ebony like ....to a blanket..G

[mandolooter]

Gavin is that a fancy name for super glue?

[J.A.P.]

The reason for the question is I'm considering building some three piece necks. The necks will be maple with an ebony center strip. Since the little ebony points presented a challenge I thought that there is an opertunity to royaly messing things up with a larger part such as a neck. Since the neck layup is so much larger, the use of CA is probably not practical. Titebond has worked well for the three piece necks I've built with black walnut as the center piece. However the Titebond wasn't bullet proof on the ebony point protectors. LMI has glowing remarks about their own wood glue. Is anyone else as impressed?

Sorry, That was kind of a long way to restate my question.

J.A.P.

[P Josey]

Is the LMI instrument glue a good all around glue for building mandolins ? I know Charlie D. mentioned it on a Co-mando thread, stating it was a good glue. Anybody have any experience with it?


Paul Josey

[MarkG]

I've always used epoxy to laminate 3 piece necks. "West System" epoxy seems to work fine for me, even when using ebony center strips.

-mark

[Jim Hilburn]

I like LMI glue, although I've always wondered if they're not just buying Elmers in 55 gallon drums and re-packaging it.
Actually, it seems to set up faster than Titebond, and drys really hard, not rubbery.
Ive built about 15 mandolins with 3-piece ebony strip necks, and all were done with Titebond and all are still in one piece. It's a whole different ballgame than trying to get the tips glued on. There's so much gluing surface, you won't have any problem using either LMI or Titebond.
Now everyone can chime in about hot hide glue.

[Gavin Baird]

Yes...Cyano is Super Glue. I use this material for the points and binding. For laminating my necks, I always use West Epoxy...Slow Cure..In fact any use of Epoxy should be the Slow Cure variety..And always go for the best of the best in epoxies...G

[Dru Lee Parsec]

I like it. When I clean up glue squeeze out it shatters like glass so I know it's not normal white glue. They say it has a short shelf life so I keep mine in the fridge when I'm not using it. It certianly is harder than AR glue like Titebond. I've glued oily wood like cocobolo and it seems to work fine.

[douglas2cats]

Have you tried using any of the polyurethane glues (Gorilla Glue and the like)? They're reportedly better suited to gluing oily exotic hardwoods than yellow/white. I've used it gluing teak with excellent results (not an instrument application BTW). Open time is about 20-30 minutes if I remember correctly. Cleaning up squeeze out is kind of similar to epoxy. Try it too soon and you're just smearing around a sticky mess & making a bigger cleanup problem. Wait too long and it's hard as a rock. If you can catch it after it's gotten hard (but not completely cured) it's pretty managable - best bet is a sharp card scraper or a sharp chisel. The squeeze out actually foams out of the joint. Doesn't have the nasty fumes of epoxy either. Note-buy only as much as you need - once exposed to air, you'll be lucky if you can get through the whole bottle before some of it hardents. The stuff works good, but experiment on some scrap to see if you like it before committing your expensive wood.