Am looking for waterproof wood glue which isn't ACC or epoxy.

[modeltrains]

Hey Y'all; Asking for assistance from the collective knowledge base here.
Am looking for wood glue which isn't ACC or epoxy.
And am not finding it.

Decided that during this weeks 99 to 103F heat here in central Missouri I'd reactivate a few balsa wood rubber band powered submarine model projects which have sat dormant for anywhere from 5 to 14 years.

A small bedroom in an apartment is where this is being done and because of my messy health with neurological, autoimmune, endocrine, mitochondrial, problems, I'd rather not have that many ACC, CA, fumes for either me or the cats.
Project set out to make more progress on is a 36 in long, 5.5in beam, twin-screw, design loosely based on Typhoon/Red October.
It is if frame and skin style construction.

Projects reference,

my Flickr album of the initial 2 footers:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskzXRFGp

The big twin-screw 3ft beast,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93483263@N03/albums/72177720300694274

Have looked for waterproof wood glue and asked, including both this morning and last summer, at our county seat farm burg's 2 hardware stores.
Looked at Walmart.
Looked online today at Dumas Boats, Tower Hobbies, Horizon Hobbies, Micro-Mark, Wooden Boat magazine's Wooden Boat Store.
I know I had some waterproof wood glue for model boats before moving here - over a decade ago.
Think it had come from Tower Hobbies/Great Planes. (which has since gone bankrupt and been acquired by Horizon Hobbies)
But even if that glue could be found it would likely have exceeded its shelf life.

 

[CalebJ]

I think titebond 3 claims to be waterproof.

 

[modeltrains]

I think titebond 3 claims to be waterproof.

And ... your recollection is correct, it does turn out to be claimed so by the manufacturer,
http://www.titebond.com/product/glues/e8d40b45-0ab3-49f7-8a9c-b53970f736afThanks!

 

[lakeroadster]

Wow, mega cool project! Thanks for the links.

Any "exterior rated" wood glue....

 

[ep29030]

Have you considered polyurethane glue?

 

[modeltrains]

Wow, mega cool project!

Thanks!
The initial red/grey/orange sub was built in 2005 or so from plans in a book my parents had given me when I was in 4th grade in the 1970s.
Only took me around 30 years to get around to it!
But by that time I had enough knowledge and experience to significantly improve the model from a design which had bent tinplate prop, rudder, dive planes, & the rubber band secured by a cork in a vent hole.

Boat is ballasted to float with deck awash, and to dive when thrust is applied and there is flow over the dive planes, "dynamic diving" in the RC sub world.

Styling on both my research boat and the Navy boat for Bobby is freelance inspired by several real life subs.
The Typhoon inspired one is going to get sci-fi freelance-ized in to a commercial cargo sub.
And most likely get painted in Chessie System railroad colors.

That Olympic sized city pool in the video clip, the sub will go the full length; will surface before reaching other end, but it will travel the full length on, I think about 320 winds, of 2 loops of 3/16 tan sport rubber from FAI Model Supply, a stick and tissue airplane supplier.

Propellor is from a Traxxis RC deep vee.
And it turns out to really bite the water at the lower rubber motor RPM.

This image, that hazy spot below and just ahead of bow is bottom drain in apartment pool at the time; sub is about 7 feet down at that point.

 

[lakeroadster]

Awesome. It's all out there, pretty much anything you can think of it seems.

Does it shoot tiny rubber band powered torpedoes?

 

[modeltrains]

Have you considered polyurethane glue?

Actually, I don't even know what it is. Do know of polyurethane stains and varnishes, but did not know of the glues

 

[modeltrains]

Ah, this shows me I had goofed in editing some fluff out of the Flickr link!
And ...
Brings to mind that this boat has some serious rudder authority!
You set the rudders, YOU GET RUDDER!

 

[modeltrains]

Hmm ... poked around the web via Google and I'm not liking the sound of polyurethane glues relative to my purposes and materials and methods for these balsa wood projects,
https://thecraftsmanblog.com/wood-glue-vs-polyurethane-glue/
"

Disadvantages of Polyurethane Glue​

• Requires moisture to cure
• Expands to fill joints
• Shorter working time of about 15 mins
• Clean up requires paint thinner
• Short self life of 1 year

One of the tricks of polyurethane glue is how it cures. It requires moisture to cure rather than air drying like wood glue. That means that you’ll need to mist both surfaces lightly before applying the glue for a good bond. Unlike wood glue, polyurethane glue excels at connecting end grain joints, so keep that mind as well.

You may also have noticed that I listed “expands to fill joints” as both an advantage and disadvantage. That’s not a mistake. That expansion makes polyurethane glue an excellent choice for uneven, irregular surfaces. It also poses a challenge when gluing two smooth surfaces together because if not clamped properly, that expansion can push the surfaces away from each other.

Comparing wood glue vs polyurethane glue, you have a working time about half that of wood glue with polyurethane. For little projects this might be helpful, but for larger glue-ups, this usually causes problems.
"
--> That bit about wetting the wood ... late 1980s I was building a Dumas Shelley Foss tugboat and it called for soaking and bending plywood to fit around the stern.
Well ...
My body's reaction to that wet plywood left me quite unwell, almost warranted a trip to the ER, and for the next 2 decades I could not work with wood at all or even have bare unsealed wood in the house.
Early 2000s I began to be able to work with wood again.
I don't dare risk working with wet wood again.

 

[lakeroadster]

That bit about wetting the wood ... late 1980s I was building a Dumas Shelley Foss tugboat and it called for soaking and bending plywood to fit around the stern.
Well ...
My body's reaction to that wet plywood left me quite unwell, almost warranted a trip to the ER, and for the next 2 decades I could not work with wood at all or even have bare unsealed wood in the house.
Early 2000s I began to be able to work with wood again.
I don't dare risk working with wet wood again.

Yikes... It's truly scary some of the chemicals used today. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[modeltrains]

Yikes...

Yep. During an overlapping period, enamel paint had to be removed from my hobby supplies.
Can now get away with it in small doses.

My research sub had its balsa sealed and hardened on both internal and external surfaces - outdoors!!! via soaking it with that really thin super glue.
Painted hull interior with a hard white enamel before gluing deck on.
Paint is spray cans.
And being rivet-counting realistic when painting was totally not a mission goal.


Red is Testors 1204, spray version of 1104 dark red "quarterfloz" bottle.
Black boot topping is from Microscale decal Trim Film.
Grey is somebody's primer, might be DupliColor auto paint, might Walmart one dollar enamel.
Flourescent orange, it might be Testors, might be someone else.


Oh! Periscopes are brass and copper tube & in order to strengthen the conning tower/sail attachment they go all the way down to free-flooding hull interior ...
so ...
quite unintentionally ...
they often emit bubbles as sub dives.

(as an aside, there are drawings for a 1 meter long, 1/72 scale, model of Jules Verne's Nautilus, styled as described by Verne, not as the Harper Goff Disney version, which ya do gotta admit looks way cool)
(unsure what to do for a prop for it, might try a 3 blade pusher prop intended for a .049 airplane motor)
(there is one which purchased years ago drifting around loose in my home somewhere, at one point it was on the chain for the ceiling fan in the dining room but has long since been removed and put elsewhere)

Color scheme was inspired as much by trains as by Navy practices,

https://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wo...-hiawatha-between-chicago-and-milwaukee-1956/
and,

The Midwest Hiawatha Speedliner, Milwaukee Road - Linen Postcard by Steve Shook, on Flickr

 

[brockrwood]

And ... your recollection is correct, it does turn out to be claimed so by the manufacturer,
http://www.titebond.com/product/glues/e8d40b45-0ab3-49f7-8a9c-b53970f736afThanks!

Love Titebond III. I use it for almost everything now.