Very OT: Brown "molasses" oozing from old furniture

Try on rec.woodworking .

Good idea. I shall do that.

I've seen this sort of thing happen when the two-part glue that is used (especially for the last 50 years or so) wasn't mixed properly and one part is left liquid in the joint with not enough "hardener" (or vice-versa). Heaven knows the reason that it chose THIS particular time to seep out, but that is one explanation. If the joint isn't loose, then the rest of the glue that got a proper mix will hold it together.

One explanation may be that the furniture in question was moved or slightly stressed, a tiny pinhole of the "bad" glue popped open, and the liquid glue drips out drop by drop.

It may have been a quick "fix me in a hurry" job by somebody that can't read and follow instructions. We don't often find it in structural wood on airplanes, but when we do the questions become "real interesting". And you are right, it looks like "light" molasses, sort of tobacco-chaw-spit brown.

Jim

-- "Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching." --Satchel Paige

Pine is NOT a hardwood! Pine SAP is NOT molasses!

Ah, so you have seen it. This glue joint was probably done way before the Wright brothers were born but I guess it can still happen. It sure looks like dark brown chew tobacco. Not very runny, maybe like molasses at 40F.

After Greg's hint I also asked on rec.woodworking so hopefully I can tackle it this weekend. Unfortunately we'll also have to re-paint a wall because it touched that wall and oozed onto it. Not much, but won't come off.

Well, this ain't pine. It is wood from Europe, possibly cherry.

But pine sap can be dark and like molasses. I've split roughly 10 cords of that stuff over the last five years. Digger pine had pretty light colored sap, the other ones were dark brown.

Glue, especially for wood, back then, was NOT a multi-part mix. Folks back then didn't even know what "hardener" was.

Half of their cans of glue dried in the can if it didn't get used quickly enough.

An old trick, for paint or any other air cure media, is to hold one's breath for a long time, and then breath into the can just before putting the lid down. No skin on your paint, and glue, etc. is the result. I think it was even in Popular Mechanics at one time.

So, the point is that if it is uncured glue, it was in a pocket where it never got any air, and a small fracture in what encased it is what has now allowed it to ooze out. Does it harden upon hitting the outside world?

It hasn't, and that's the puzzler here. It has remained gooei and molasses-like for a couple days now and it's around 75-80F inside on account of the summer.

Collect it, and make your own rosin flux. :)

read

Smells like? Tastes like? (How is it on pancakes? :) ) Soluble in paint thinner, alcohol or water? Does it catch on fire if ignited? D from BC

part

but

slightly

glue

read

you

No smell. But then again, it's allergy season out here...

I'm not gonna do that :-)

Haven't tried. Water does not clean it up though. Just smears it around.

:-)

Next thing someone will suggest to put it in the pipe tobacco and see if it gives a buzz...

Don't waste it like that! Find some old copper braided coax and make your own solder wick. I've used lots of braid from scrap RG-174 and RG58 coax that way, by dipping it into some Kester 1544 flux.

Well, I haven't had the opportunity to work on any of the 1903-06 Wright Fliers (*) but I've seen some stuff from that era and there was no two-part glue to be had in those days. As I vaguely recall, mixit glue came along during WWII and was used extensively in the civilian world thereafter...and there are dozens of resorcinol-formaldehyde compounds.

That joint may not have been originally glued with mixit, but a repair might have been. The stuff looks a lot like molasses. Take a little bead of it and see if it is soluble in nearly pure alcohol (the 95% stuff from the drug store or 190 proof everclear). The odds are if it is mixit glue it will dissolve.

If it dissolves, then you might be able to save the wall also.

(*) ...although some of my colleagues at the airport think I taught Orville & Wilbur to fly {;-)

Jim

If it has been encased inside a joint for over a hundred years, Lord knows what chemical changes have taken place.

Jim

-- "Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching." --Satchel Paige

Who said anything about pine?

Jim

-- "Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching." --Satchel Paige

"JackShephard" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

That's becasue yours is the only Pilot's License they've ever seen with a negative number. ;-)

BTW, one of the best jokes in my bad joke collection is about a pilot. ;-)

A bit of a long shot here:

Has the furniture ever been varnished? I have come across something a bit like that when cellulose-nitrate varnish is heated with a blowlamp and begins to decompose. No amount of scraping will get it off after that, it just spreads itself around and seems to melt into the wood like toffee.

It has a characteristic smell when heated and, if you are lucky enough, it will decompose slowly, giving off white acrid toxic fumes. If it decomposes more quickly, you could be really unlucky....