Shopsmith Forums

I had to make up a couple of panels for the project I'm working on from bead board and 1/4" pw. Contact cement is the right bonding adhesive for that type of project. Because it's winter and I'm working inside I looked for and found water based contact cement (Weldwood). It worked great. It seams less viscous than the solvent based cement. It flowed great. Dried in 40 minutes. Cleaned up well and didn't stink!

The only issue is that the materials must be at 65° F for 24 hours before and after bonding. We never have the heat up that high at night and 66 is the daytime temp so I needed to store the sheets in a bathroom with a heater. Nothing's perfect.

berry wrote:I had to make up a couple of panels for the project I'm working on from bead board and 1/4" pw. Contact cement is the right bonding adhesive for that type of project. Because it's winter and I'm working inside I looked for and found water based contact cement (Weldwood). It worked great. It seams less viscous than the solvent based cement. It flowed great. Dried in 40 minutes. Cleaned up well and didn't stink!

The only issue is that the materials must be at 65° F for 24 hours before and after bonding. We never have the heat up that high at night and 66 is the daytime temp so I needed to store the sheets in a bathroom with a heater. Nothing's perfect.

Get your projects a heating blanket! I do agree the water based contact is very nice to use. None of the problems of the solvent based product and it seems to work as well or better.

Water based contact cement is great for working indoors where you can't vent properly.
However, I found that I don't like water based contact cement for veneer because the water in it swells the veneer and causes it to buckle much worse than with oil based cement.

Ed in Tampa wrote:
Get your projects a heating blanket! I do agree the water based contact is very nice to use. None of the problems of the solvent based product and it seems to work as well or better.

Actually the blanket is not a bad idea.
We had a bunch of glue ups that had to stay in the garage so we took two of those cheap mylar survival blankets. laid one on the table, placed all the glued up pieces on it, laid the other mylar over the top and then used a electric blanket over the top and set it on high. The electric blanket DID turn off some where in the night (safety thing I guess??), but it warmed the wood up enough and the mylar reflected the heat back long enough that the glue held. Not elegant, but it worked.

Be well,
Ben