Assembly adhesive products focus on certain applications, such as reactive hot melt, finger jointing, and automatic dowel insertion.

Assembly

Franklin Adhesives & Polymers offers a full line of superior-quality assembly glues formulated to meet the demands of your woodworking operation. Many of our products are designed for specific applications including reactive hot melt, finger jointing and automatic dowel insertion.

Our commercial adhesives offer varying degrees of open time, cure time and viscosity to match specific application requirements. To determine an appropriate product option for your application, please refer to our product selector

The term "assembly gluing" covers a wide range of joint types.  Most of these involve gluing side grain to side or end grain. Some joint types include dowel, mortise and tenon, dovetail and miter. 

For best results in using our adhesives in assembly applications, please follow the below guidelines.

Spread

Adhesive is generally applied by plastic squeeze bottles or brush. It is important to get a uniform coating over the entire gluing surface. In dowel assemblies, the sides of the dowel hole should be evenly coated. The dowel forces glue up the side of the dowel.

Assembly time

Assembly time can vary greatly depending on the adhesive used, glue spread, porosity and moisture content of the gluing stock, environmental conditions, etc. Generally accepted assembly times range from two to ten minutes.

Joint preparation

Joints should be cut accurately with sharp tools. Joints should fit snugly when assembled and clamped.  Adhesives should not be expected to act as gap fillers. Conversely, too tight of a joint may cause the adhesive to be scraped away from the gluing surface. Dull cutting tools will cause glazed or burnished surfaces, preventing adhesive penetration.

Clamping

A variety of clamps and clamping systems are available for assembly joints. Enough clamping pressure is recommended to provide a thin glue line along the entire surface of the joint. Direct contact of the gluing surfaces must be made to obtain maximum strength.

Clamp time

Clamp time is dependent on the adhesive used, species and moisture content of the stock, environmental factors and glue-line thickness. Clamp times can range from a few minutes to more than an hour depending on the above factors. Clamp times should be determined under plant conditions.

Minimum temperature

Curing temperatures should be higher than the minimum use temperature of the adhesive. This includes the temperature of the stock to be glued as well as the air and adhesive temperatures.

Additional information on assembly gluing can be found in the full version of our Assembly Gluing Guide, or by contacting our technical support team. For more information about gluing equipment, please refer to our resources link.

Assembly 50 –Well suited for doweling and general assembly work

Assembly 65 - A very versatile, high solids adhesive for good gap filling; it is widely used for assembly applications and general cabinetry.

Assembly 161 - Specifically designed for use with automatic doweling equipment; its low viscosity of 160cps allows for appropriate flow through narrow feed lines and injectors.

Assembly High Tack - Excellent for general assembly as well as edge and face gluing of hardwoods and softwoods.

Multibond Advantage 2 - water-resistant adhesive that is ideal for finger jointing, edge gluing, radio frequency applications and hot pressing

Multibond EZ-1 – A fast setting rate, water-resistance, viscosity stability and high solids percentage make these good assembly glues.

Multibond EZ-2 - Designed for cold press applications where water-resistance is required, but can also be used for assembly gluing applications. They have a low film formation temperature.

Multibond EZ-2HV – High viscosity adhesive designed for cold press applications where water-resistance is required,
but can also be used for assembly gluing applications. They have a low film formation temperature.

Multibond X-016 - Highly water-resistant adhesive ideal for finger jointing, cold press, radio-frequency and hot-press applications

Titebond 5050HV & Regular - Fast-setting, heat-resistant adhesives, best used in assembly and edge
and face gluing.