The Best Glue For Wood?

Glass and wood are two extremely different materials: one smooth and with a compact surface, the other absorbent and with numerous pores.
To glue clear glass to wood, a transparent mirror adhesive is required. It's important to make sure that no bubbles or streaks are created when gluing. Although wood and glass can be bonded using assembly adhesives, such adhesives are usually white in colour, which causes problems when bonding clear glass.

Professional tip:
Transparent adhesives and glass have different light refraction, so you will still notice the bonding at a certain angle. It's therefore advisable, if possible, to paint one side of the clear glass before bonding to wood.

Double-sided high-performance adhesive tapes are also ideal for bonding transparent materials such as glass to painted wood, both indoors and outdoors. These include the acrylate-based VHB adhesive tapes 4905, 4910, 4915, 4918 from 3M.

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3M™ VHB™ 

The foamed 3M Scotch Mount mirror tape is particularly suitable for attaching mirrors to furniture or doors. This is an ageing-, UV-, temperature- and solvent-resistant mounting tape for the furniture industry, shop fitting, exhibition stand construction and interior design. Scotch Mount adheres to wood, glass, metal, stone, ceramics and plasticiser-free. The plus: The foam is able to compensate for minor irregularities in the adhesive surfaces (up to a maximum of half the thickness of the adhesive tape).

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3M™ Scotch Mount

Processing:
In general, adhesive surfaces must be clean, dust-free, dry and firm. Bonding to wallpaper is not recommended. The adhesive tape should first be applied to the substrate if the adhesive surfaces are uneven. It's best to apply the adhesive tape in a vertical direction because this allows the air to circulate better behind the mirror or metal panel.

Professional tip:
Neither double-sided adhesive tapes nor the mirror tape are, however, suitable for bonding solid glass, metal or plastic elements to unsealed, raw wood or even chipboard. Such joints would not last too long because wood fibres can detach from the bond and with them the adhesive tape from the wood. For this reason, it's essential to pre-treat wood surfaces appropriately before gluing (for example, with deep primer) or to screw on a metal sheet as a support for the adhesive tape.

Chipboard made of wood is a common material for quickly and practically forming a laying base for floor coverings such as parquet, laminate or plank flooring.
When laid directly on concrete, chipboard can be used as a substitute for the usual wet screed. However, wood chipboard is subject to dimensional changes. The wood swells or shrinks due to the seasons. The choice of an elastic impact sound insulation in combination with a flexible adhesive is therefore important.

For this purpose, there are e.g. partly solvent-based one-component or two-component adhesives on the market that are suitable for gluing parquet. The advantage of polyurethane adhesives is that they usually do not contain any components that have a swelling effect on parquet or floorboards. In the case of 2-component products, however, at least one component usually contains hazardous substances that require appropriate occupational safety measures.

1-component polyurethane adhesives (PUR), for example, cure due to ambient moisture and lead to softly elastic, but nevertheless very strong bonding of wooden boards, but also on gypsum boards or steel or aluminium substrates. One-component polyurethane adhesives, however, only reach their final strength after one to three days.

Polyurethane adhesives (2-component) are also suitable for bonding large areas of wood or plastic laminates. They cure by chemical reaction of two substances and offer high flexibility even with metal and plastic substrates. However, 2-component PUR adhesives require exact adherence to the prescribed mixing ratio as well as very careful mixing. Due to the limited pot life, they require particularly good work preparation, e.g. with regard to parquet cuts.

Reaction resin adhesives for parquet based on epoxy resin are only available as two-component systems. The technical properties are similar to those of 2-component polyurethane adhesives.

Professional tip:
Air bubbles are a weak point in the cured adhesive joint. Therefore, do not mix in too much air when mixing.
To keep the pressure on the glue joint constant, it's advisable to use screw clamps whenever wood is glued.
To ensure that bonded wood parts withstand the weather, PUR-based thermosetting adhesives are often the better choice, as they are also more heat-stable and therefore safer.