Speaker Box Glue - Suggestions pls

[GeorgeBoles]

Hello All,

Just a quickie here:

What glue do you recommend for assembly of a subwoofer cabinet.

I was going to use Araldite (the slow drying stuff) ... an epoxy two part glue, but then it has been suggested that I should use:

a.) Weldbond ... a sort of souped up PVA glue (Canadian origin?)
b.) Common old Aquadhere - a garden variety PVA glue.

These are the main options I have here in Australia.

Any recommendations please,

Regards,
GB

 

[johninCR]

Use yellow wood glue. It dries quickly, is water resistant, cheap, and forms a bond stronger than the wood itself.

 

[Timn8ter]

Agreed. The only advantage of using the new poly glues is their expanding nature which is beneficial for filling in misaligned cuts. Other than that they are messy and hard to work with.

 

[Cal Weldon]

Use yellow wood glue.

Cal

 

[jleaman]

Sniff sniff i smell glue.. opps i don't think i should be sniffing glue : O )

Hey call message me on msn. : O )

 

[GeorgeBoles]

Yellow Wood Glue?

Demonstrating my lack of knowledge here, but the only yellow glue I know of is Selleys Contact Cement - yellow, smells gorgeous (!!), but is a contact glue.

What are the names of the stuff(s) you use?

The other one that I forgot to mention is Selley's Liquid Nails ... smells nice and solventy, and can be used as a normal glue or as a contact adhesive ... not yellow though, more of a brown colour. Could that be what you mean?

Regards,
MW

(sniff)

 

[Timn8ter]

Here the typical brands are Titebond (my favorite), Weldbond, and good ol' Elmer's Carpenters Glue.

http://www.titebond.com/

 

[johninCR]

I'm not in the U.S. either and the only brand here is Lanco. It says it's an alphatic resin. The yellow is water resistant and the white isn't. Use it liberally and wipe off the excess with a wet cloth quickly because it stains the wood.

 

[tktran]

George mate,

what ya after is Selley's Aquadhere or any other regular ol "PVA glue"

The bonds are stronger than MDF itself so nothing to worry about. I know, coz I broke a butt joint on purpose- the MDF snapped but the glue remained.

You could also try Selley's "Woodworker's Choice Cross-linking PVA glue"

Nothing but the best for my babies.


PS.
It's also what I used as veneering glue.

 

[GeorgeBoles]

Thanks to everyone.

I have some Weldbond and lots of Aquadhere, all in nice new condition. Will go with the Weldbond (supplemented with Aquadhere should I run out) for my first effort, especially given the mystery of "yellow wood glue".

Lots of good information and gratefully received.

Regards,
GB

 

[5th element]

Use yellow wood glue. It dries quickly, is water resistant, cheap, and forms a bond stronger than the wood itself.

I also use titebond it dries very quickly allowing for fast buliding of cabinets.

For veneering I use contact adhesive, timebond i think thats called, its a solid jelly like substance thats very easy to work with, smells kinda funky too, keep rooms well ventilated.

 

[johninCR]

.... especially given the mystery of "yellow wood glue".

GB,

You asked what was best. There's no mystery. White PVA glues generally aren't water resistant. The yellow ones generally are. Read the bottle first. It cleans up easily with water before it dries, with no fumes, no sticky mess, is stronger than the wood it bonds, is and cheap. Those that fill in the gaps are not as strong, are messy, have fumes, do not provide the same rigidity, and/or are more expensive.

 

[GeorgeBoles]

You asked what was best. There's no mystery.

Thanks JohninCR, I did. The mystery of yellow wood glue remains that I do not know the brand name of any such stuff here in Oz. I am sure it exists, but have never seen it advertized or on the shelves. The only brand name mentioned so far was Lanco (your suggestion), which no-one here in Townsville has heard of. It is stored away though in my (fallible) memory bank, as is this thread on my (fallible) Hard Drive!

With thanks,
GB

 

[qi]

GeorgeBoles:

I have had great success with WELDBOND (albeit VERY pricey in the USA)

re AQUADHERE...

Just wanted to alert you to a marketing blurb from them...

"AQUADHERE is not recommended for joints which are subjected to constant high stress" (spelled S-U-B-W-O-O-F-E-R)

My personal favourite (and what I used for the world's largest Bose Acoustic Cannon(s) ):

Gorilla Glue (polyurethane glue)
VERY strong
(use plastic gloves though or it will stain your hands)

 

[speaker]

My wife is a furniture/cabinetmaker. She uses basic, white glue. The brand is Elmer's and it is a general purpose household glue. The final bond is stronger than the wood.

speaker

 

[GeorgeBoles]

More inputs to my supra-tentorial memory bank and very fuzzy-logic CPU (not working as well as it used to though) and my hard drive!

Thanks again!
GB

 

[tktran]

PVA glue has bonds STRONGer than MDF.

With regular ol' Selley's Aquadhere, if your subwoofer is powerful enough to flex or break the bond, I'd first worry about replacing the MDF...

Even with simple butt joints and 1" MDF, IME that's plenty fine for a 50-80L sealed box.

Or if you can't tame that beast just give it to me.

 

[simon dart]

I'll second a vote for Gorilla glue, incredidibly strong polyurathane but a little brittle when hardened. It has no grab so clamping strategy is important.

I don't like PVA's so much, the glue just soaks into the glue line and disappears, especially with something as porous as MDF. I can never bring myself to trust them 100%.

I've also used West boat builders epoxy with excellent results. You can get glass microspheres as part of the system, when added they have the effect of altering the viscosity of the glue so it's really versatile. This stuff and Birch Ply produce the stiffest enclosures which is what you need for subs. (Don't butt join! It ruins the joint integrity) Not cheap though.

Good luck

Simon

 

[Dazzzla]

I'm a carpenter by trade and I have fitted thousands of joints made from MDF and I wouldn't recommend general purpose PVA (the white stuff) for gluing. Although it will bond in most cases, its not guaranteed. When MDF architraves first filtered threw to the housing industry the white PVC glue was the glue of choice for chippies, including myself. What we found though a day or so after gluing and nailing, the MDF shrank and split the joint. Not every joint split but it was consistent. We now use a dedicated MDF glue, its a yellow colour, probably the same stuff mentioned in the start of this thread.
I’d also recommend screwing all joints, MDF has a grain, and it splits along this grain very easily. So by screwing through the grain you won’t be relying on this limitation.

Hope this helps
DE

 

[Jim85IROC]

I use yellow PVA for all of my enclosures, although I also screw the larger ones together.

I've built (and sold) numerous automotive subwoofer enclosures using this method, and not one has ever failed. I use the screws simply because the automotive boxes I use are far too complex to clamp unless I want to spend 2 weeks building each one. I use the screws to hold the wood together while the glue dries. The result is an extremely sturdy box that will never come apart.

I've built a few smaller enclosures without the screws, and so far I've found no indication whatsoever that the glue bond is of any concern. I don't have the same amount of experience with this as Dazzzla has however, so I suspect that at the very minimum, you do some experimentation with scrap wood to ensure that you're getting your desired results.

My glue of choice is Loctite Wood Worx that's found right in Wal Mart. It's just a typical PVA.