Speaker Cabinet Glue

[audioferret]

What do people think is the best glue for assembling speaker cabinets?

I am about to assemble a pair of 3-way cabinets (crossovers are done!) and it is time to put the boxes together.

-AF

[pinkmouse]

Ordinary white or yellow PVA woodglue is just about the best, but if your woodwork is a little eratic, one of the foaming ones like Gorilla Glue is good, just a pain to clean up afterwards.

[poobah]

The best is epoxy... the slower the cure the better... but it sucks!

Refer to pink mouse...

[pinkmouse]

Yes, but it's about 10 times the price, and doesn't give you any stronger joints.

[Audiophilenoob]

Originally posted by pinkmouse
Ordinary white or yellow PVA woodglue is just about the best, but if your woodwork is a little eratic, one of the foaming ones like Gorilla Glue is good, just a pain to clean up afterwards.

I agree... wood glue is pretty much top stuff


filling gaps less than 1/4" in my old days before a good circular laser saw and table saw I used liquid nails and then bondo'd/plastered the outside (only for carpeting/paint work)

that gorrila glue is expensive and never stuck to pine for some reason

[poobah]

Not so hastey pinkmouse.

Epoxy doesn't shrink like PVA. So you don't need clamps.

Epoxy doesn't expand like Urethane. So you don't need clamps.

Epoxy can be mixed with about anything for gap filling

Epoxy doesn't weaken with age... PVA does.

Epoxy is water proof... PVA is not.

Epoxy does cost more, but the double syringes can be had now for 2 buck... $20 could put together some speaks...

Epoxy does suck though... refer to pinkmouse!

[AuroraB]

You do indeed need some clamping while epoxy cures-
Normal PVA glue weakening?? Forget it- if you don't think soaking your speakers with water.

Epoxy makes great filler, mixed with saw dust if necesseary. can be knifed, driller, planed, routed etc.
Wonderful glue, though, but not at all necesseary for normal joints.

[Curmudgeon]

My experience with epoxy is that it sits on the surface of the wood, and although the glue will never fail, the wood fails more easily than with a glue that penetrates the wood. I prefer the gorilla type glues and yellow carpenter's glue for that reason.

Of course the speaker cabinet is not under that sort of stress, but it seems intuitive that stiffening the joint slightly due to absorption can't hurt and might help in modest vibration reduction.

[googler]

To be fair to Epoxy - there are alot of different epoxies out there, each with specific applications in mind. If you find that your epoxy does not penetrate the wood, you should consider a different epoxy for that application. I've found that for MDF joints an epoxy resin meant for wetting fiberglass or marine types are easiest to work with as they are not nearly as thick as some of the "wood epoxy" types. This makes it much more managable, unfortunately most of the fiberglassing epoxy that you will find in the home stores produces toxic fumes which are also very flammable - making their use in the garage limitted to the warm months (garage heater + flammable vapors = very bad day).

If you are looking for something readily available at your local stores, that is non toxic and easy to work with - stick with a good yellow glue like TiteBond or ProBond wood glues.

A handy trick for cleanup, I use blue painters tape to mask off the area near the joint where the glue or epoxy may squeeze out. Once the glue is dry or epoxy has cured, just take off the tape. No scraping or major sanding required.

~Brad

[gfinlayson]

I use PVA for pretty much all my woodworking projects. Wickes sell a 5 litre container for about £10. It's best diluted about 1 part water to 5 parts PVA, so you get 6 litres of glue for £10.