# Gorilla glue and no water



## BobRad

I was recently using CA for gluing tubes and switched back to Gorilla glue (regular brown).

I just realized that the last few pens I made were glued without priming the blank with water. How bad is this?


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## mredburn

I have glued tubes without wetting them first and had no problems. It does help ensure they are better glued if you do wet them. Let them cure before turning them.


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## soligen

I havent weted mine either.  Just takes longer to cure - I still see the foaming action in the end.  I dont think it matters much if you are waiting over night. I'm in michigan, which is humid, and my shop is in the basement.  In dryer climes YMMV.


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## BobRad

They were left for around 20 hours before I turned them and seemed solid


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## bradh

I found that the more moisture present, the more the glue foams and fills the gaps. 
  Too much moisture can foam the tube right out of the blank or leave so little glue behind that the joint is weak. 
  The best joints happen when you get a good moisture-compromise; enough foam to fill the gaps, yet still give a good strong joint.


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## toddlajoie

I used water when I started using gorilla glue, then decided to try it without, and have not noticed a difference (other than the less foaming, which IMO is a good thing. It still foams quite enough to fill any gaps between the drill size and the tube size (even for slightly off size bits, like using a 10.5mm in place of a 10mm that is too dull, DAMHIKT...) I've turned pens done this way about 3 hours after gluing, and have not had a problem (yet...) It just seemed odd to me to take my nice dry blanks and add water to them....


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## Pens By Scott

Well, being a newbie, i didn't even know about wetting the tubes...  I switched from Med CA to Gorilla glue a few months ago.  Never seemed to have any troubles with the tubes, other than a few foamed over and stuck to the work bench, which means i get to use the random orbit palm sander once a month or so....


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## ldb2000

For gluing in tubes no water is better . There is enough moisture in the air to cure the glue and less foaming is a good thing . Just because the foam fills the gaps don't really give it very much strength . The glue is very strong but the foam has no structural strength so all it is doing is filling the gaps and if there is more foam then glue the bond becomes weaker . You can prove this to yourself by gluing some wood together . On one joint get a good surface to surface fit and glue it together , on the other leave a gap for the foam to fill (no surface to surface contact) . After the glue has dried try and break the joint with the good contact joint , you won't be able to break the bond and the wood will give before the glue does . Then try to break the joint that had no surface contact , the foam will tear rather easily and the joint will fail . 
Popular Woodworking did a review on several different types of glue and concluded that on a good joint polyurethane glues can't be beat but do a poor job where there are large gaps to fill . Epoxy was rated best for gap filling joints .


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## DurocShark

Gorilla will take days to cure here in Denver in winter, regardless of the temp in the garage. No humidity. I found just breathing into the hole is enough though.


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