Planking without clamps, clean up, or drying time - a new way to use Titebond Original

[Quimp Slattery]

During this week's modelling on HM Cutter Alert I accidentally stumbled on an unsuspected quality of Titebond Original wood glue - it can be made to set instantaneously with the application of heat.

 

I brush uniform layers on the hull side and the pre-shaped plank and dry both rapidly with a hairdryer. This takes  only a few seconds as the amount of glue we use is so small.

 

Then I place the plank in position and apply heat with my soldering iron based, plank bending tool from Model Craft. This reactivates the glue and the two surfaces bond instantly and exactly in place, pressed firmly down by the iron. I work along the plank from one end to the other and it's fixed. No drying time required, no clamps, no squeeze-out to be cleaned up. It's better than contact or superglue because there's no accidental 'grab' in the wrong position. The glue which has soaked into the plank softens it slightly which makes getting it into place much easier.

 

 Previously I could set two planks in a session, now I can do a dozen, and I can do much longer runs without difficulty. In fact the only limit is my stamina. This has reduced the time required tremendously and since planking is such a large part of a build, it has reduced the overall time required very significantly indeed, perhaps even halving it. Use this method and build twice as many boats!

 

Why didn't I see this before? I believe it's because I (and the modellers who have inspired me in books and on line) come to model shipbuilding from carpentry and assumed that clamping and drying time were unavoidable. Perhaps we read about how the original vessels were build from huge timbers and don't see that in our scaled down working we have more in common with marquetry or veneering?

 

Having spent a week experimenting and working up a repeatable, efficient technique I belatedly searched YouTube for "Titebond" and "heat" to see whether anyone else had got there first. The link below will take you to a fairly authoritative source - The Official Titebond Channel. The guy is veneering a table but the techniques and chemistry are all valid. Significantly, I now have faith that the bond will be permanent, because Titebond says so.

 

 

I have not protected my planking (pear) with paper as the guy in the video suggests. I've had no scorching, just a little surface polishing which was easily removed when I sanded/scraped the hull that I had planked in less than a week. 

 

I doubt that I'm the first model ship builder to find this 'new' way to use glue. I haven't seen it described anywhere else though so I thought it would be useful to mention it here. Unfortunately I have no financial interest in Titebond.

 

It probably works with other resin based wood glues, but I haven't tried any. Titebond also do a special purpose veneer glue which might be even more useful in ways of which I have not yet dreamed, but since Original works for me, I'll stick to it. 

 

 

Edited August 11 by Quimp Slattery

[Quimp Slattery]

Some afterthoughts.

 

1. I've only used this on a second planking. A first planking would be another matter since there would be only bulkheads and previous edges to stick to. I think instant setting will be useful but there will be new tricks to learn first.

 

2. The experience of setting so many planks in quick succession improved my cutting and bending skills tremendously. Repetition is such an important part of learning a skill and two planks a day wasn't helping me much.

 

3. I bend my planks to fit quite well before sticking. I can't say whether this technique will work for folks who rely on strong clamps to force their planks into position.

 

[druxey]

I've used Titebond II successfully many times for veneering. The advantage is that the glue can be reactivated more than once by heat. Regular white glues can only be reactivated successfully once.

 

That said, a properly spiled and pre-bent plank will stay in place with only about 30 seconds of finger pressure.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  The guy in the video uses LOTS of glue, but (no doubt) one can use somewhat less for 2nd planking with relatively thin stock.  I intend to try this in future on a fully faired 1st planked hull - or one that has 100% blocking between bulkheads .... or even on a solid hull.

[Quimp Slattery]

20 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

  The guy in the video uses LOTS of glue, but (no doubt) one can use somewhat less for 2nd planking with relatively thin stock.  I intend to try this in future on a fully faired 1st planked hull - or one that has 100% blocking between bulkheads .... or even on a solid hull.

I found that a very thin coat of glue worked well into the surface was most effective. 
 

I intend to try this system next time I first-plank over bulkheads, though that will be some time in the distant future. I plan to use the heat only on the plank-to-bulkhead joints and let the plank-to-plank joints dry in the normal way. 
 

Although, now I ponder the matter further, it might be useful to heat the plank-to-plank joins too. I wouldn’t be applying any closing pressure either way. 
 

I suggest that whoever tries it first reports back here. 
 

 

[wefalck]

Heat-setting white glue has been used by German modellers for decades ... I think there are two mechanisms working: the evaporation of the water as solvent and speeding up of the chemical reaction as such - according to van't Hoff every increase of 10 K in temperature doubles the speed of reaction.

Edited August 12 by wefalck

[Quimp Slattery]

On 8/10/2024 at 1:11 PM, druxey said:

a properly spiled and pre-bent plank will stay in place with only about 30 seconds of finger pressure

 

That's true, a well fitting plank will stay in place with unheated glue (especially if the glue has been allowed to coagulate a little and isn't too thick) but the bond will be soft for quite some time and I'd hesitate to push another plank firmly against it until it had hardened completely.

 

The advantages of heat application are that it instantly sets the joint as firmly as leaving an unheated one overnight AND that the plank doesn't have to be perfectly shaped and bent - I'm new to this and my planks still need a little help. ☺️

Edited August 12 by Quimp Slattery

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

4 hours ago, wefalck said:

Heat-setting white glue has been used by German modelers for decades ... I think there are two mechanisms working: the evaporation of the water as solvent and speeding up of the chemical reaction as such - according to van't Hoff every increase of 10 K in temperature doubles the speed of reaction.

  THAT'S why it always seems so cold in hospitals, and patients seldom get an adequate explanation ... just an extra blanket.  As a hospital worker, I know that for every 10 degrees in delta T downwards - microbial activity goes down by half.  Disease control and the prevention of nosocomial infections are a major concern, so the temperature is intentionally set to the cool side for everyone's benefit.

  Where do really sick people go? ... to the hospital, of course.  Being a Pharmacy Technician (thought, in the hierarchy, to be above housekeeping and perhaps on par with Nurses' Aides) during the height of the pandemic, we only had paper masks, hand washing and fresh scrubs to defend ourselves - since the better masks were allocated to Doctors and Nurses.  We still are regularly exposed to all sorts of 'bugs', e.g., tuberculosis, resistant bacteria, hepatitis, noro-virus and other 'tummy bugs', flu, colds and worse.  So we don't mind 'chilling out' for the sake of disease control.

[tmj]

I've built a lot of guitars in the past years. I like to decorate my headstocks with exotic veneers for added effect. I use Titebond glue for that. After cutting my veneer(s) slightly oversized I smear the glue on both my veneers as well as my head stock then walk away for a few hours, or a day to let the glue dry. I then break out my 'heat sealing iron', used for applying heat shrinking plastic to my R/C airplanes, and simply iron the veneers to the headstock of the guitar neck. It bonds instantly and will never let go, unless heated up again and pried off with a spatula. This technique works extremely well. The below image is of the headstock of a gourd banjo that I built for myself about 12 years ago. I used multiple layers of different colored veneers to achieve the effect that I wanted. Looks as good today as it looked 12 years ago! 🙂  

 

[michael101]

Interesting ! 
 

[Thunder]

Use this method and build twice as many boats!

 

 

My wife is going to love you!!

[Quimp Slattery]

55 minutes ago, Thunder said:

My wife is going to love you!!

 

😊

[michael101]

The big question it’s how it will work on double plank .. you don’t want the first plank to move away 

also the glue between planks ,if you will not glue them between you can get problem after a year (summer and winter time are changing the plank wide so you can get black spaces between planks ) 

[Quimp Slattery]

Heat setting the Titebond during the deck planking of my Alert (1777) is making the task easy and very quick.

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37081-hm-cutter-alert-1777-by-quimp-slattery-vanguard-models-164/#comment-1066894