re: Glue. A sticky thread.

I’ve done well with TBII, but I don’t buy large supplies of it. I am a big fan of epoxy, and use it pretty regularly for certain things, but usually not wood joints. I actually really like JB Weld’s two part epoxy. Seems to not be very touchy when it comes to getting the quantities right. 

What I don’t have any experience with is hide glue. I know it’s reversible, but given the advances in adhesives from the hay day of hide glue, why use it now? I mean, are folks reversing hide glue all that often?

As for required pressure, I’ve got no idea. I just make sure I’ve got a consistent thin coat of glue covering the whole mating surface on both sides, wiping away a thin strip along the edges with my finger, then apply clamp pressure until I get just a little squeeze out all along the seam. I saw a video one time explaining how clamp pressure is distributed along a seam. Basically, the pressure is applied between the clamp faces, out to 45° on each side. That means the further away from the seam the clamp face is, the wider the applied pressure area is. It takes a bit more clamp pressure to get the same application, but it helps me with clamp spacing. Using squeeze out as my guide, the 45° rule seems to be accurate!