DAP 203 Dap 00 Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue, 1 lb., Tan

I do a lot of woodworking. When i need waterproof, and or a long work time - this is what i reach for. This mostly repeats other reviews: * You get a good 15-25 min working open time (still able to brush or roll it) Hot days definitely shorten it. * While not advertised as "waterproof", like another reviewer i submerged a test sample but let mine sit for a week (2x3's 2" overlap long grain) and bashed it app art. the wood failed, glue joint held with no signs of incursion. * Reasonably prices * Drys hard and will not soften with heat(like that generated when power sanding). Zero creep and very strong. * Thickness can be adjusted from putty like to runny by varying amount of water (but it does effect strength) * Minimal to zero clamping pressure is required. I have mixed it on the thick side and its like a lower strength epoxy requiring no clamps. * Sands and paints well. Does not stain but i have added water based dyes to the mix and it works great. * Food safe once dry- great for cutting boards! * Easy clean up with water (soap helps) - it does get progressively harder to clean toward the end of working open time. Cautions: > USE IN WELL VENTILATED AREA. Fumes during drying are a serious hazard! > Keep it tightly covered and check the expiration date. "if the texture is gritty and sand like once mixed, and not a smooth liquid, the glue is expired" DO NOT USE - your joint will fail. I have found displacing the air in the container with a gas like argon, Carbon dioxide, or Sulfur Hexafluoride (heaver than air/ nitrogen and available at home depot), extends the shelf life (a trick i use all the time with paint, stains and varnishes). > Mixing can be problematic. If you add too much water too fast it does tend to get lumpy. I start with 1/3 the total amount of water (or less if mixing large batches) in a corner and stir in small amounts of powder till it reaches a toothpaste or peanut butter consistency, add the next 1/3 to thin the paste then cut in more powder slowly. By this time all the powder is incorporated and i add the last 1/3. Mix it well!

Dap Plastic Resin glue is a fine product when you need extra time for complicated glue ups, need waterproof assemblies, are laminating multiple pieces or just want to take your time when putting projects together. Besides being a super strong and waterproof glue it has absolutely no creep when dry, so laminations stay put and in position once they are taken out of the clamps. It has a dark brown color when cured and mixes with ease....when fresh! So here's the rub, they make more of this stuff then they sell and its not uncommon to get an old batch which mixes up in a sandy / grainy consistency which doesn't cure right and then you're in trouble. They state that you should use the batch within one year of manufacturing and thats great but then they use some secret code to label the tubs according to when its been made. Since I usually leave my secret decoder ring someplace other than the job site or the shop I'm never really quite sure if I'm using fresh stuff. ( that's why the 4 stars ) Please Weldwood use something more clear for the date code. I'm getting tired of wasting product time and money. I think I have the code figured out now but I can't seem to get confirmation from Dap so I don't want to steer anybody wrong until I'm sure. Still, all in all its a great product and I hope it stays around for many years to come.

I have been using Weldwood Plastic Resin glue for gluing up bamboo fly rods for over forty years. It is an excellent glue, strong and easy to work. There are two major cautions. First is you must assure that the glue you have is within the one-year shelf life for the product. There is a paper tag on the top of the container with a date of manufacture code. The first digit is the year made and the next three digits the day of the year numerically. In over 40 years of using the product, I have never had a glue joint failure when I paid attention to the expiration date. Once, I inadvertently grabbed an old container in the shop and did have delaminations. Now, immediately upon receipt, we mark the container with "use or discard by (the expiration date)" in very large letters. We now order in one-lb containers only and send back any that have fewer than six months til expiration upon receipt. Recently, we have found that the product has not been completely pulverized and contains small chunks that must be removed prior to mixing if you are to produce exacting joints. We filter the powder with a very fine metal strainer to remove before we mix. Also, we find that weighing the powder and the water gives more consistent results than mixing by volume. UPDATE/BEWARE: I'm about ready to change to no stars! Amazon has lowered the price and says the product has no expiration date. The one we got today is rock hard and is over six years old. That's five past the shelf life recommended by Weldwood. I've had bamboo rods delaminate on account of stale Plastic Resin glue. Had to toss some $10,000 worth of rods that time. Wonder what game Amazon is playing here.

As a kid in 1971, I watched my father do an experiment with this Weldwood Resin glue: He glued two pieces of wood together into a corner joint. After it was thoroughly set, he bashed the experiment against our asphalt driveway. The joint remained fully intact, while the surrounding wood shattered. What they say is true: it is stronger than the wood itself. It is load bearing, (even Titebond III, by comparison, states on its own label that it is not load-bearing). IMPORTANT: Especially if you are gluing hardwood (like Black Walnut) and you are joining two smooth surfaces in a corner joint with high clamping pressure, you can literally squeeze all the glue out, destroying the bond. Happened to me four times. BUT: if you glue bare wood to bare wood and roughen the surfaces, then apply a liberal amount of glue, clamping with only lite to medium pressure — you will get a bond like iron. As noted by other reviewers, be watchful of the manufacture date; it has a shelf life of only one year. Also, being a Urea Formaldehyde glue, it is a hazardous material; absolutely wear a breathing filter mask and use protective gloves while gluing and sanding its dried joints. This is a glue you should become informed about before using. It is worth all of this though, because it is simply an awesome, powerful glue. Two tips that work well for me: Use warm water for the mixing, and consider using a heating pad over the glue joint. UF glues love warmth for a good cure. Just a clue about the glue.

This is very strong wood glue and works extremely well. The reason for 4 stars and not 5 is it only has a shelf life of 12 months or so and the package I got was already about 5 months old. The price is right so it's not the end of the world but either the suppliers or Amazon should try to do something about not holding older stock so customers get it fresh.

very strong but tricky to get smooth, its lumpy. Good glue if you are not worried about close tolerances or a finished look.

I'm very impressed with this inexpensive glue from my grandfather's generation. I use a postal scale to weigh the correct ratio of glue and water, but DAP also provides directions to measure by volume. I stir it up in a cup, it thickens up after about 20 minutes to be roughly similar to white 'elmers' style glue. The glue in your pot is good for a few hours. Is this hassle of mixing glue worth it? Absolutely. Long working time: I paint the glue onto both joint surfaces. After painting your joints you have 10-15 minutes to fit the parts together, and once together, another good 20 minutes or so to get them clamped and still. Easy cleanup: You can clean glue off the surface with water. Rock solid, strong joints: This glue doesn't creep. At all. I've made several test joints and they never break in the joint itself, it breaks in the wood around the joint, so it really is stronger than the wood itself. Non-immersion Waterproof: DAP does not claim this glue is waterproof, but I consider it to be sufficiently waterproof for non-immersed applications. I immersed a test joints for over a week, and neither the dried glue nor the wood showed a hint of yielding to moisture. I reckon it's plenty good enough for my outdoor painted project to withstand some occasional rain. Use Resorcinol to build your boat hull. The one caution: Curing temperature. DAP says a minimum of 70 degrees ambient air temperature for curing (some have reported good curing a bit lower, maybe 65 degrees, but I wouldn't push it). Warmer temperature accelerates cure time.

I was turned on to this product from woodworking shows on TV and must say the virtues of this adhesive are confirmed with its use. It has a very long pot life, about four hours. Open time is about twenty minutes, once applied to the wood. Closed time is another ten minutes once parts are joined. The clamp time can be very long, and is highly dependent on temperature. The hotter it is, the less clamp time. Clamp pressure is less than what's needed for other types of glue and in fact I once glued two pieces of wood without clamping and needed a blunt chisel to break the bond (the wood failed, not the glue). I have mixed this glue by volume, but will now be trying to do it by weight as that's what the manufacturer recommends. Besides the fact that temperature is a very big factor in the success or failure of the bond with this glue (it MUST be above 65* or it will NOT bond), shelf life also seems to be a big factor. This product should be used within one year of manufacture. At first I disregarded this, but I tried mixing a new tub of glue I had and no matter how much water I added (way more than the mix ratio) it wouldn't go beyond a paste. Also, if the texture is gritty and sand like once mixed, and not a smooth liquid, the glue is expired. To read the date code, there is a sticker on the tub. The third number is the year of manufacture and the forth and fifth and/or sixth represent the calendar day. This one I just bought only had four numbers, so it was made Jan. 14 2010. They may have omitted the first two numbers. Thanks to members of a woodworking forum for the expiry information.