You probably have plenty of small screws, joints and joiners in your woodshop, but are you getting the most out of your glue gun? That hot glue could be saving you a lot of time. Replacing all those tiny screws with a few dots of glue helps a project like new cabinets come together much faster and hold together even stronger thanks to the hot liquid fusing the pieces together.
If you haven’t been reaching for your hot melt glue gun for any major projects, now is a great time to start. Your glue can help you square off projects, get your projects completed much faster and add to your creativity and process to help you try more techniques in your shop. Many woodworkers are already using this great tool and have found the best uses for it in their shop.
Squaring Blocks
Any time you make a corner, and especially in a storage unit like a cabinet, you want to ensure your corners are clean and square. Who wants to store their spices or canned foods in a cabinet that’s poorly constructed?
Squaring blocks are a way to ensure your corners are clean and sit at a perfect 90-degree angle. With the help of an adhesive, these will come together very fast.
All you need are two blocks of MDF, one slightly bigger than the other. The two sizes will cut back on the stress of perfectly lining up the two pieces as you glue them together. Use your hot glue to put the smaller piece on the bigger piece and squeeze them together, so your glue line is nice and thin. Clamp them together on top of a set of calls to keep the pressure evenly distributed. Scrape off any glue that’s snuck out over the edge before it dries.
After that, it’s just a matter of getting your squaring block L-shape cut with the help of your table and band saw, as seen in this tutorial from American Woodworker. You can make as many squaring blocks as you need for your shop. Once you have a great set, your corners will look neat, clean and professional every time.
Attach a Frame to a Base
The base to your wooden cabinets is the heart of the piece. As a woodworker, you know you want good, clean parallel edges to bring the base together. Once you have your wood picked out and your pieces cut out, it’s time to reach for your glue gun.
The Down to Earth Woodworker on YouTube uses a wood glue as opposed to a hot glue as he puts his project together, but as you watch, you can see that hotmelt PUR glue can easily take the place of the standard gun. The glue helps the frame attach to the base much faster, and it tacks up to help the brads during the connection process.
Again, always keep an eye out for any errant glue that may go over your edges. Get it off before it dries for the nice, clean finish.
As you watch the Down to Earth host, it’s clear how much of a helper glue can be. With the addition of heat, your adhesive can seep into the grain of the wood and create an even stronger hold. Rather than just relying on his screws and brads, he reaches for his glue to ensure everything is holding together well, standing perfectly straight and looking great as he adds any additional touches.
Crown It
If you’re handy with crown molding, you can add a lovely crown to your cabinet with the help of glue. You will need your frame and shelves completed first and your gussets in place before you add any adhesives.
When everything is lined up and ready to go, you can apply a bead of glue to the joining edge and then add some more to the actual frame. Put it all together and tack it in a few spots with a nail gun.
Add a Beautiful Accent
If you want to add some color and texture to your cabinets, you can go a lot of directions. Metal screens or small details like little animals or words can all look great. Or, if you want a nice, soft touch, you can add some fabric to your cabinet frame or door.
Hotmelt glues make for an excellent adhesive when joining two very different surfaces, such as a wood grain, to a strong, sturdy fabric. Use your glue gun to get a nice bead on the side of the wood facing out (and within any framing you want), and then glue the pre-cut fabric down so it lines up with your cabinet door.
The glue will seep into the fabric as well as the wood and help strengthen the hold.
Or, add some gorgeous knobs to the outside of your project. With the help of an adhesive, you can get that extra hold on the thread of any screw you’re using and make that knob permanent.
Install Lighting
Many LED light sets come with their own adhesives, but that doesn’t mean they’ll hold up year after year. If you want to add a bit of brightness to the bottom of your cabinet once it’s installed or put in an internal fixture, PUR hot melt can come right to your rescue.
PUR hot melt can join the plastic and wood without any fuss and help you get the job done quickly. Let the glue cure overnight if you can and make sure not to touch your fixture until the adhesive is completely dry.