I used to build banjo necks. I swore by Franklin’s Tite Bond. These days it seems like Elmer Carpenter’s glue
(both the yellow type) is about half the price of Franklin. Is this just market share stuff? Anyone had
any substantial differences using one or the other for their benchwork?
I have used both in the woodshop and for HO they are about the same. I use a lot of the dark brown for weathered buildings and the trestle.
The main difference is the name on the bottle. In 40+ years as a carpenter/cabinetmaker I have used just about every kind of glue, and have found very little differences between white & yellow “carpenters” glue except moisture resistance - the yellow is more “moisture resistant” - not waterproof! The yellow sets up faster, so I still use the old white when I have a complicated glue-up that may take a little longer to line up and clamp. With either one, the wood will break before the glue!! My [2c]
White glue dries clear. As I recall, (and somebody please correct me if I’m wrong,) carpenters’ glue dries a more milky yellow color.
So, while it doesn’t matter much for benchwork or banjos, you want to use white glue for ballasting and doing scenery.
Consumer reports had a relative tie between titebond III and the top end elmers… and gave the nod to elmer’s on price with the titebond III being very slightly more highly rated. Thats from memory… but I saw it relatively recently.
I use the “regular” titebond. It seems plenty strong enough and is water cleanup, or at least somewhat water cleanup, where some of the other wood glues, including titebond III, for exterior use are more of a pain although they are waterproof when dry. My regular stuff I think is only “water resistant”. I also prefer the round shape of the larger titebond bottles to elmers more flat shape.
I think there are some differences between some of the wood glues and white glue not only on how it bonds and water-proofness (a word?) but also in how they take wood stains.
Regards,
Chris
I too have used both in the woodshop.
As for the “yellow and the white”: I use the yellow for the more permanent types of projects such as adhering track, gluing trestle and bridge work and so on. The white is for ballasting and scenery.
This reasoning is two fold; as the white does seem to dry clearer and the yellow is more water / moisture resistant. This way when I screw up the scenery…I can remove this layer with wet water without taking up the track and cork too.
Thanks very much for the feedback guys. This is as I thought. It’s just been 25 yrs. since I built banjo necks and wanted to see if much had changed. I was taken aback when I saw the price difference and it made me
wonder. Guess Elmer’s is just so much bigger than Franklin, company wise. I always feel a little “superstitious” when I change products from something that I had success with in the past, but I need the dough for more turnouts so guess it’s Elmer’s.