Jowat produces a wide range of adhesives for all your woodworking needs. Whether you like to DIY and enjoys casual woodworking or are a large manufacturer in the woodworking industry, Jowat has the glues and hot melts you need.
These tips will teach you which types of Jowat Adhesives to use for your projects and other tricks to make your projects go quicker and hold their bonds longer.
How to Glue Wood
Gluing wood is completed just like gluing together any other two substrates: you lay down a bead of glue or spray on the adhesive and compress the two pieces of material together.
However, the type of wood you glue together and the material to which you want to bind the wood both need a specific type of adhesive to work best.
For natural woods, you should always glue them grain to grain.
Types of Woodworking Adhesives
There are four basic types of woodworking adhesives: polyvinyl acetate (PVA), polyurethane, hot melt and epoxy. There are also a number of specialty glues you might need depending on the type of material you want to bond to the wood.
Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA)
Woodworkers have been using PVA glue since the 1940s. Manufacturers and DIYers use PVA primarily for wood, paper, cloth and porous stone like sandstone. Also known as yellow or carpenter’s glue, bookbinders like using PVA because it is non-acidic.
PVA glue stores well, so you can keep a stock of it in your woodshop without worrying that it will dry out quickly.
Jowat PVA works well when gluing natural wood boards together. However, like any PVA, you should use a different Jowat adhesive when gluing wood edge-to-edge.
Polyurethane
Polyurethane glue does not store well, so purchase a tube for each project. The hot melt form, PUR or reactive polyurethane glue, has a shelf life of about one year but will deteriorate rapidly if air gets into the container.
Unlike PVA, polyurethane glue does not soak into the wood. This makes it ideal for gluing plywood and other wood edge-to-edge.
Hot Melt
Hot melt glue comes in sticks. An applicator is required to heat up the glue before application. Hot melt creates a very strong bond, cures fast and works well.
Epoxy
Epoxy cures quickly and is very strong. It also works great with plastic and metals.
Outdoor and Indoor Adhesives and Woodworking
Some adhesives advertise as being an outdoor or indoor glue. The difference has nothing to do with strength. Outdoor and indoor glues bind wood equally well. The wood will break before the adhesive bond breaks.
Outdoor glue is usually water-based. This allows it to remain semi-flexible despite the bond. The adhesive does not completely dry. That way the glue can expand and contract depending on the weather conditions. Outdoor glue also repels water better than indoor glue does.
More Jowat Hot Melt Tips
Hot melt has many properties that make it very useful for woodworking. It sets very quickly, yet is easy to clean up after and remove.
For woodworking, hot melt makes a great clamp. Attach one side to your bench or surface with a few dollops of hot melt, then carve, paint or do whatever you need to do to the top surface. When you are finished, chisel the glue loose and attach the piece permanently to whatever substrate you want.
Hot melt also works well for mounting hardware to wood. Merely apply the hot melt to the wood and press the hardware in place.
Edgebanding
Jowat has an excellent specialty woodworking glue for hot melt edgebanding. This product is made especially for bonding wood edges together, wood to plastic and resonated paper edgebands.
The completed bond has great cold flexibility, heat resistance and color maintenance, so it has a lot of applications for outdoor woodworking.
Machining
Use adhesives when you need to machine smaller wooden parts. Gluing the parts to a larger piece of scrap wood and shaping them that way is much safer because you can easily keep your fingers away from the cutting edges.
Accelerating Bonding
If you want to use PVA glue, combine it with hot melt so you get the strong hot melt bond to hold the pieces together immediately while still permitting the PVA to cure completely.
Glue Guns for Woodworking
Make sure you use the correct size and type of glue gun for the job. Your woodworking tool chest should include mini, medium, and industrial size guns. Glue guns also come in a variety of temperature settings and work with different adhesives for a range of applications.