Drying time for segmented rings?

[Jim Bennett]

I'm making segmented bowls / vases. They usually have anywhere from 8 - 15 rings made up of either 12, 16, or 20 segments each, depending on the style I'm making. It is (for me, anyway) a lot easier to glue a ring in place, turn it, glue another ring, etc. rather than gluing the whole shebang up in a press and then have to reach inside to turn the interior.

However, my concern is drying time for each ring. What I've done in the past is to fasten the solid bottom disk to a faceplate with a paper glue joint, then the next day true up that disk and then glue on the next ring. The following day I turn that ring's interior, gradually building the inside bowl shape. Then I glue on the next ring. The next day the process is repeated, etc. until all rings have been glued on. It works great but.... I wind up spending a lot of days waiting for the glued-on ring to dry.

I'm using Titebond II and my materials are usually maple, walnut, and padauk. Would it be safe to glue on a ring, say at 9:00 am and then around 4:00 in the afternoon (or maybe after dinner) start turning it? Will the glue cure enough in those seven hours?

 

[john lucas]

Yes. I have turned rings after an hour but you have to consider that the end grain is the weak point for the glue so I wait longer for the first ring. After that my rings are generally overlapped brick layer style so there is a lot of side grain to side grain over the end grain joints. So I can glue them up and turn them after about an hour with titebond.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I have started turning on a segmented ring within an hour of gluing to the stack, I usually support the last ring with a round flat board and the tail stock to provide additional support to the glue joint while roughing the outer portion of the ring. If you get up early in the morning to turn your last glued ring you can usually get (3) rings turned during the day if you time your segment rings and they are dry and ready to be mounted. If you are not providing additional support for the ring you might want to wait a few more hours before you start roughing the segmented ring. If the glue is not completely dry you want to use a sharp tool and a lite cut, a completely dry glue joint you can get aggressive with your cuts with no worry.

 

[Chris Edwards]

Not an expert, although I've done a few segmented bowls, assuming your segment rings aren't too tall, why not glue up 3 or four rings a day, that way you are not hollowing a deep amount. Let those three or four rings dry overnight, turn the next morning and then glue up some more rings.

 

[Jim Bennett]

Chris, Mike, & John - thanks for the comments! I think I'll give it a try with about four hours of drying time, based on what y'all have said. Maybe three. But I probably won't push it past that - just too, too much work to get to that point only to have the thing vaporize in my face!

Thanks again, Jim

 

[GRJensen]

I generally only wait about 30 minutes before I glue on the next ring ... sometimes I stack two or three rings before I turn them.

One thing I do that seems to help is to remove the squeeze-out after about 5 minutes ... I made a small tool (like a miniature putty knife) that I use to scrape away the squeeze-out both inside and outside.

 

[Greg Norman]

With titebond 2 after an hour you couldn’t beat it apart with a hammer, if you switch to titebond 3 it’s more like 20 minutes. When I was turning a lot of segmented pieces I glued the rings together and after 15 minutes I could run them through my performax drum sander and never had one fail. I prefer to glue all rings together before turning so I used the sander to flatten the rings before glueing the stack together.

 

[Jim Bennett]

Thanks Gerald and Greg - I put another ring on yesterday, and after having it dry for about 3 hours or so, gave it the chisel treatment - no problems at all. So I guess that even after only two hours +- I can proceed with turning. This'll certainly cut down on the start to finish time on my projects! OK on the sander - I also have a SuperMax drum sander and it is a huge time saver for flattening rings before building.

Regards, Jim