Do It Yourself

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Natural wood glues, general feedback? (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello fine people of Beehaw,

I was wondering if any of you could point me in a direction of a natural wood glue I can buy that is, of course, affordable?

I'm making myself a desktop and I'd rather avoid synthetic glues (polyurethane stuff) and finishes, since the whole point is to replace the melamine thing I have now. I was planning on using pine resin pitch to glue up the boards, but my area has been in drought for almost three months now and I'd rather not set fire to the neighbourhood when I'm making the glue.

Meanwhile, I've been tripping over the box that holds the rest of the desk (I won't be making the legs) so I would love any suggestions!

For the finish I'll be using some sort of spirit varnish. In the link they use resin from the Jetoba Tree (aka animé :D) dissolved in >95% alcohol, and apparently this varnish has lasted for centuries on violins, so I think it would be interesting to try it on my desk.

All of this will likely be done with some 5/4 s2s soft maple because it looks pretty and I'm pretty chill with my furniture.

Cheers!

P.S. I live in Canada, PNW.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Personally, I'd just go with ordinary yellow wood glue even though it's synthetic. Natural things are not necessarily non-toxic, artificial things are not necessarily harmful, and PVA glue is pretty safe provided you don't drink the stuff (I wouldn't drink most hide glues either, and those were the normal glues used for woodworking before the advent of synthetics). Even melamine is only moderately toxic (as in, you don't want to eat it or inhale the dust, but a desk surface isn't dangerous unless it's breaking down).

I suppose the ultimate in non-toxic glues is unflavoured gelatin from the grocery store (essentially food-grade hide glue), but its adhesive properties have a reputation for being highly variable—after all, it isn't meant to be used as glue, so there's no QA applied for that property.