Elizabeth,
I find this highly useful for multi-ply laminations...like:
laminating radiused belly ribs - usually five to seven ply's of spruce- I laminate radiused ribs for all my belly's
laminated bridge roots- 10 to 12 or more ply's
bridge caps
soundboard panel glueups - 9 to 15 3"-6" pieces edge glued
Most of these require many square ft of glue surface to be coated, both sides, evenly and very quickly. The evenly and quickly is important, to get the assembly in the press in the glue's required glue pre-assembly open time. PVA requires one hoof-it in a mulit-lam assembly. Even Titebond Extend. So being able to quickly coat each surface evenly, very quickly, not only speeds the process, but improves the product.
The coating process, for me, was one reason I used two-part UF glues for a long time, also Polyurethanes to some degree. UF glues have long open times and don't grab, so inefficient spreading can be accepted without jeopardizing the product. However, I no longer use UF glues, for 2 reasons. 1- I developed a sensitivity to the formaldehyde, 2- the improved UF's which have much less formaldehyde have an absolutely drop dead minimum allowable 70deg temperature of product, substrate and shop ambient environment, that cold weather UF glue-ups became a real challenge. Using these low formaldehyde glues under the 70 deg minimum, even 60 deg which is a reasonable shop temp, means glue joint failure...ask me how I know. So I now use PVA such as Extend and Vacuum pressing System's Unibond 1.
PVA's mean application must be fast, even and efficient. Thus my quest to improve the application aspect without escalating to a machine.
I've used the regular paint rollers, cutting the 9 inch long roller covers to 3", using foam covers. But my complaint on those was, that loading the roller without it sliding. I find this sliding through the product in a puddle on apiece of wood, wastes valuable glue-up time. If the larger diameter roller is used with a small paint tray, the tray helps mitigate the sliding, but too much product is wasted both filling the roller and filling the tray. It works...but I found the improvement with these trim rollers to be major, relative to other methods, dirt cheap, and readily available.
I don't use PVA on soundboard panel glueups. I use Polyurethane, which has a longer open time, doesn't grab, and is easier on the hand planes I use to hand surface the boards.
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Jim Ialeggio
grandpianosolutions.com
Shirley, MA
978 425-9026
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-08-2017 07:58
From: Elizabeth Pearson
Subject: Glue Roller
Hi Jim
This is an interesting product. I'm wondering what glue joints you're using it on?
Thank you and I hope you're well.
Elizabeth
Original Message------
I've been looking for a glue roller that worked for years. The commercial shop motor driven rollers are excellent items, but for a small shop, they just don't make sense in terms of wasted product for small runs, and clean-up times, not to mention cost for the machines.
Short of a machine I've gone through ink rollers (pretty ok for polyurethane glues), all kinds of spatulas, wood scraps, etc etc, but was always unhappy with the results. Messy, too slow, hard to apply uniformly. Large paint rollers worked somewhat, but wasted a lot of product and often slid on the surface rather than rolled. Finally, as my wife was finishing up a paint project at home, she was using this cheap cheap cheap trim roller setup that had everything that I was looking for. After a small connubial tussle I was able to extract it from her to try it out.
-a small tray to fill with either very small to reasonable amounts of PVA or UF glues
-easy to clean
-intended for paint, the small tray bottom is profiled like a paint tray, to allow you to work product uniformly into the roller
-roller is small diameter and 3" long
-roller cover is very short nap, so it grabs enough to roll rather than slide on the work piece, even if its only 3/4" wide glue surface
-available at any hardware store (at least here in Msssachusetts)
-rolls never slides
-did I say cheap..as in $4.99 for the roller and try, and replacement covers at $2.99 for 2 covers
shureline trim roller and tray
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Jim Ialeggio
grandpianosolutions.com
Shirley, MA
978 425-9026
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