Best Adhesive For Thin Wood Veneer?

What is the best adhesive to use on thin wood such as shingles or veneer for flooring? I posed this question on the Greenleaf Forum recently, and the answers were as varied as the species of wood available.

Some liked to use hot glue, but the drawback was the longevity and the fact that getting burned was common. Some liked to use rubber cement, but others pointed out that eventually it dries out and loses it's bond. Some said contact cement, but others reminded us that you only get one chance to position it correctly. Once it's touched to the other piece, you're out of luck. Also, the smell was terrible. Still others said regular wood glue, securely clamped until the glue cures. Yet some said they had bad experiences with wood glue not drying clear and wood still curling in spite of clamping. Then there was the super glue camp, also pointing out the mess and the expense.

What this told me is that we've all experimented and didn't like some of the results with different products. But do we all have our favorites in spite of certain risks?

I had a terrible time finding a good solution with Encounters Gifts & Grub. I had thin veneer strips from HBS that I wanted to use as clapboard, wainscoting and paneling. Plus, there were all of the shingles! I had a lot to do, and needed whatever it was going to be to work!

I started out with Tacky Glue and quickly realized that the only way to prevent curling was to put a thin sheen of it across the piece then get it down immediately and clamp it. That's okay if you have a lifespan of 1000 years and can wait for glue to dry. Even the clamping quickly method sucked. When I lifted the clamp off I now had oozed glue to clean up. Tacky is not a good candidate for sanding, either.

Then I tried contact cement. Oh it stuck! To me and everything else within a 10 foot radius. And, if you aren't a pristine crafter, you'll end up like me with little rubberized gobs sticking out between your seems. :0(

I tried Quick Grab. I was just as messy with that. I couldn't get it applied fast enough! I'd put out a little squirt on waxed paper, try to get the cap back on quickly before the oozing became too incessant, then try to spread it on the wood before it became too crusty to stick. I always somehow ended up with it on my fingers and didn't realize it until I had touched something. At $7 for that tube I'd have needed to be a millionaire to get all my wood attached. <insert sad sigh>











In my pout, head on the table, 1000 mile stare, I just so happened to look at my wallpaper paste. It was sitting at eye level. It said "A Stikflat Glue". What? Could it be?!? It was the one and only Grandmother Stover's. I've been using that on wallpaper for ever! And it makes other stuff stick flat? At this point I really had nothing to lose.

I took an old paint brush and painted a nice, thin bead across the wood strip. I stuck it on the wall. It stuck. I stared at it for what seemed like a full week. I never caught it curling. After several cocktails hours, I tried to pry it off. Nope! It was not coming off! Success! I used it to glue the rest of my veneer without a problem. It was easy to wipe off any excess with water, dried clear, and over three years later is still holding on great! Plus, it's like $5, and goes a loooong way!

Okay, so I thought I might get an answer from the collective genius of the forum. Some magic product I had never heard of, and it would change my life. Not so much. It seemed everyone was just as dissatisfied as I had been. So, for the Alki Point flooring, I decided to experiment again.

I used what I had on hand, because I assume most miniature enthusiasts would have the same type of adhesives, too. Quick Grab Tacky Glue, Titebond Wood Glue (the clear drying kind), and good old Grandmother Stover's.

I have a pack of very thin veneer to use on my project, so what better to experiment with. I cut several long and several short pieces using my rotary paper trimmer. I took a piece of the 1/8" plywood from the Greenleaf kit (cut out left over from window) to use as the gluing surface.

Then I added the adhesives to the long and short pieces, and affixed them to the plywood scrap. I pressed each of them a few times, but didn't want to clamp them. What would they do on their own without any force over time?

They have been drying for a couple of hours now, and the results are pretty much as I expected.

The Quick Grab Tacky - dried with edges curling up
The Titebond - Significant curl initially, drying somewhat flatter but still not flat
The Grandmother Stover's - Never curled, Stukflat, Stayingflat!

Please do your own experimenting and please share your comments! I'd love to hear about what has worked (and not worked) for you!

I know what I'll be using for the wood floors on the Alki Point! Good old Grandmother Stover's!

I saw the word gray when I was looking for fabric for the Alki Point. You know how a word that you've been writing the same way for years suddenly looks completely wrong? This was one of those moments for me, because I find myself using the alternative; Grey.

Of course I had to Google it and find out if I've been a complete dork all this time, or if there really were two grays/greys. Here's what I found:

Gray vs. grey

Gray and grey are different spellings of the same word, and both are used throughout the English-speaking world. But gray is more common in American English, while grey is more common in all the other main varieties of English. In the U.K., for instance, grey appears about twenty times for every instance of gray. In the U.S. the ratio is reversed.

Both spellings, which have origins in the Old English grǽg, have existed hundreds of years.¹ Greygained ascendancy in all varieties of English in the early 18th century, but its dominance as the preferred form was checked when American writers adopted gray about a century later. As the Ngram below shows, this change in American English came around 1825. Since then, both forms have remained fairly common throughout the English-speaking world, but the favoring of gray in the U.S. and grey everywhere else has remained consistent.

Some people make their own distinctions between gray and grey. You can find some interesting examples in the comments below. There is nothing wrong with these preferences, but they are not borne out in broader usage. For most people, gray and grey are simply different spellings of the same word.

Both spellings are used for the participles, grayed/greyed and graying/greying, as well as for most of the words and phrases involving gray/grey. For instance, grey area/gray area, referring to an area having characteristics of two extremes, is commonly spelled both ways. So is graybeard/greybeard, referring to an older man with a beard, and gray squirrel/grey squirrel (which refer to closely related types of squirrels on opposite sides of the Atlantic). There are at least a couple of exceptions, though: greyhound, for the breed of dog, always has an e,while grayling, which refers to several types of fish, always has an a.

So apparently, both ways are okay! Just remember to use both versions if you are searching for anything in that specific color family. BTW... Dork actually means "infected whale penis", so be careful using that word around fishermen! :0)

Now - on to to fun stuff! 

Today was all about spackling. I spackled walls and beams and door frames. I really like the cool and creamy feel of spackle, so it was a fun day for me! I got to squish and spread and glop and get completely messy knowing I was just a hand washing and vacuuming away from being clean again! Next time I am feeling a little anxious, I'm going to break out the Dap and just play in it for a while! Very therapeutic! 

I used the punch out doors from the kit as the pattern to make two tall transom type door sandwiches. The thinking is that one part will attach to the outside and one on the inside with the "glass" sandwiched in between. I am not going to make them opening doors. I am hoping to figure out a way to make the roof come off to access the inside. 

I got to pick out and order paint and fabric. I'm going with grey and white and pops of melon. What do you think?

Sample from Home Depot Again

Sample from Home Depot Again

Acrylic Grey Accent Color

Acrylic Melon Accent Color

Bedspread Fabric

Sofa Fabric

I received the cellfoam today. Boy that was disappointing. It was dented, all 4 pieces had a big chunk of the corner broken, and it was not at all what I was expecting. Think really thin, cheap disposable cooler foam. I thought it would be more like a pool noodle. It is going back, and I am just going to reinforce the exterior of the walls with cardstock. I probably don't need it - the 1/8" x 3/4" extender trim (to add height to the walls) seems to be very sturdy. 

Tomorrow will be filled with dust as I sand all of the spackled pieces smooth. Then, I'll prime all the walls and clean up the mess I've made again this week. My thoughtful daughter is coming here for the weekend with presents for me! No special reason. She's just awesome like that!

Sasquatch Chronicles

Line of 3 different sized tracks we found near Mt. Saint Helens 3-7-15

In my About Me paragraph, some of you may have noticed that one of the things I love are bigfoot podcasts. To some, that may sound like a ridiculous topic to be interested in. To others who, like Russ and I, spend countless days in the woods, you may also be looking for explanations to some really weird things you've experienced.

There are a lot of podcasts out there dedicated to cryptids - some, much more informational and realistic than others. I have one all time favorite, because I find the host, Wes Germer, to be completely grounded in reality - even though he and his brother experienced one of the most terrifying encounters that I've ever heard.

That is the exact reason why Wes started Sasquatch Chronicles. When he called Fish and Game to report his incident, they basically acknowledged that these creatures are real, but would not go on record with anything. Some made fun of Wes and Woody, and some flat out call them liars. Wes wanted to create a safe place where people could come and share their experiences. Not surprisingly, some of these poor people are terrified and just need to share.

Wherever you fall on the Do Exist/Don't Exist scale, I think you'll find the witness encounter stories highly enjoyable. Wes puts out a free Sunday night podcast each week, and if you find yourself dying for more, for $7 a month you get one or two more episodes each week. I recommend starting with the oldest episodes. It's interesting to hear Wes' ideas of what these things might be (and why they behave the way they do) evolve over the past couple years.

Sasquatch Chronicles

I love to listen to them while I am mini-ing. At night though, when I'm listening, it is never next to the big window! Yikes! Someday, I might even post a few of the very strange incidences we've seen and heard out there!