tenacious glue

[vejesse]

Hello. I'm wondering if anyone has experience cleaning out mysterious and extra strong glue. I'm trying to clean glue from some open cracks in a back. The glue is probably 40 years old, I don't know. It has 'plasticized' the edges - no amount of steam or alcohol/vinegar or poultice treatment will touch it. It looks like epoxy but wood stripper won't touch it. I even tried that 'airplane stripper' - you know the stuff you buy at an auto parts store and it starts to eat your flesh in 5 seconds. Didn't even touch it.

Urea glue? resicornol (sp?) glue? Nasa grade stuff? I have no clue but I could use some advice. If the edge was straight I would rout a slot an inlay wood but it zig zags so much I would like to edge glue it to avoid a giant inlay.

Thanks

Vince Jesse
The Double Bass Workshop

[Jake deVilliers]

Sounds like epoxy to me. No real solvent for that stuff once its cured, which is why I hate to use it - there's no going back with epoxy.

These guys claim to have epoxy solvents but I don't think you'll want to a) pay the price or b) be anywhere near these powerful chemicals. I would think that they'd contaminate the wood anyway, making re-gluing difficult.

In my experience, the only way to deal with epoxy is to remove the contaminated wood and replace it.

Don't you hate 'home handymen'?

[Doug D]

I just ran into something similar from an older repair. it was on the rim though so I was able to scrap and block plane it down.

you might try something like an exacto knife and a magnifying glass?

worse case, you could probably use something like tightbond that has a higher tolerance for 'contaminated' joints than hide glue...?

[vejesse]

No way I'm using titebond there. On a student grade instrument I might use System 3 with glue dust mixed in. Remember - yellow glue creeps and it gives way at 125 degrees F. Also you need good wood to wood contact for yellow glue to work. I've even given up glueing spruce guitar top cracks with titebond now, I just use hot hide glue for that.

After soaking all night the airplane stripper did remove some of the glue. Maybe there was some hide glue underneath those parts. It didn't hurt the maple but I tested the stuff on some pine and it darkened the hard winter grain lines. I had a feeling it might work - this stuff looks like toxic waste.