A few years back I bought a big jug of Titebond2 glue, figuring it’d last me a decade fulfilling my occasional need to make some wood stick together better than nails or pocket holes. I store it on my back porch, which is indoors but only gets climate control from the blower return in the room, so the room hovers between about 50F (10C) and 90F (32C) depending on the season.
I keep it capped when not pouring it into a smaller bottle that’s easier to manage.
I didn’t use it last year.
This morning I had a need, so I opened the cabinet and the attached picture is what I see. The glue has gone from an off-white to this translucent reddish-brown, and it won’t flow out of the bottle.
I was able to squish a decent amount onto a piece of scrap wood, and smear glue into the joints, then wipe off the excess - but it looks like I need to go buy more glue. I’m not happy about it, but I’ll own that I messed up and should have bought a smaller bottle, it’s on me.
Can anyone tell me what might have happened? I tried to be careful with it, but clearly something happened that I didn’t plan for. What can I do to prevent this from happening in the future?
Thanks!
Did you let it freeze? Mine looked like that after a few hard freezes.
It just went bad. It’s one of those products that will go bad exactly when you need it. Actually, it went bad well before you needed it, you just never thought to check. I usually buy a new small bottle for every job/project. That way I always have at least one bottle of good glue.
+1 to that. Consumables are always either missing or gone bad by the time you need them, I am trying to not fall for the “well this larger quantity is only 1$ more” instances because I lose that savings because it goes bad before usage!
It looks like it’s curing in the bottle. Having a poor seal, and hot temperature can make it cure faster, but it’ll eventually happen to any bottle of unused glue as the solvents evaporate out. Part of it is that plastic bottles are pretty bad at containing solvents in the long run, so glues that come in a metal can or tube will have a longer shelf life, but it might just be easier to buy a smaller amount of glue when you need it.
Here’s what it looked like out of the bottle.
Experimental math rock album cover lol
I recently used some glue that had that exact issue. I just needed it for a small repair and it actually worked great once I managed to get it out of the bottle (and off of my hands).
I used a large blob then clamped the wood and wiped off the excess that seeped out. If I was a real woodworker I would have sanded it afterward but it looked ok. That was about 6 months ago and the chair is still holding up
it was miraculously transformed into Irn Bru. call a monk they must accept it into a reliquary.
I don’t know exactly what happened to it beyond “it became unusable.”
