# Wood splits and cyanoacrylate



## crquack (Oct 10, 2008)

I was taught to stabilize wood splits with cyanoacrylate glue.

Recently I was turning a 3.5" ball out of Douglas Fir harvested 9 months ago. Although I carefully removed the split ends with generous margins before I started, by the time I finished there were threadline cracks running down both sides in a star pattern. I did as I was told to, used the low viscosity cyanoacrylate, dropped it on the cracks so it wicked into them and sprayed with activator. This arrested the crack progress. I then treated the wood with Pentacryl, dried it and washed it with acetone. So far so good, no new cracks.

However, the cyanoacrylate does not just confines itself to the cracks, it discolours the wood around the cracks. I tried sanding this off but even after some vigorous sanding the discolouration remains. I take it that the glue soaks well into the wood and sanding just exposes a new layer of it.

A somewhat related photo of the problem is here:

No.2 and No.3 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I assume that if I tried to stain the wood as I originally intended the glue will still show.

So the question is, how do you deal with this sort of problem?

BTW a photo of an extreme way of dealing with cracks is here for your amusement:

No.1 cracked!! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


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## gal turner (Mar 3, 2010)

you can't hide ca stain..it's there forever..best you can do is use a clear sealer over it so it blends..or heck flood the entire piece in ca, so all looks the same...


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## crquack (Oct 10, 2008)

Thanks!

That's a lot of CA! I can see the family and the neighbours' pets all stuck together in a large clump with the workpiece in the middle.

Hell, nobody said art was easy. Ask van Gogh...


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## crquack (Oct 10, 2008)

On second thought I had a go with a smaller piece (one of my egg cups which in spite of Pentacryl showed signs of wanting to split). I covered it with the ultrathin CA in several stages. Several things impressed me and I thought I would share the caveats:

1) The ultrathin CA does not just fill the cracks. It travels thorugh the pores (this was cherry!), it travels some distance and at some speed. The cup nearly got stuck to the table top after I applied the glue to the top rim and it travelled all the way to the base in a matter of seconds.

2) If you are going to use CA this way do not use the activator, just let it cure naturally. The appearances are considerably better this way.


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