Appreciation post: My last project taught me to sand before gluing

I was putting together a face frame and got glue all over the cherry wood. In my experience, that usually means a rough spot after finishing. So I tried sanding the edges before applying glue, and it helped a lot. For instance, I sanded to 180 grit first, and the squeeze-out came off with a damp rag. Your mileage may vary, but this simple step avoids sanding through the finish later. Take this with a grain of salt, but it made my work much cleaner.

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3 Comments

willowadams7mo ago

Ever try a card scraper for glue cleanup? That's my go-to method after a bad squeeze-out incident last year.

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robinh897mo ago

Card scrapers for tacky glue, chisels for dried bits.

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paige_hunt457mo ago

Oh yeah, that's a solid move. I mean, I started doing the same thing after I messed up some maple last fall. A card scraper gets the rest off way easier too.

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