Replies

1. 
   forestgirl | May 13, 2008 06:22am | #1

   I keep a bottle of De-Glue Goo in my cupboard for just such strange occurences.  Someone may come up with a more immediate solution, but if not.....

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   
2. 
   coolbreeze | May 13, 2008 06:26am | #2

   You need more than me weighing in on this problem. Hopefully those more experienced will soon jump in.

   I would be surprised if the glue has adhered to the varnished surface enough to tear the face frame. It will be adhered very well o the FF but not so to the varnished surface.  One thing you might try is to flatten a piece of 2X and let it set flat against the joint created by the face frame and the varnished base and take a meidum weighted mall and start "tapping' it with increasing force but not up to the point of damaging the face frame. If they will separate, this force should cause a sheer separation rather than pulling out where the glue is strongest and the wood grain is weakest.

   Good luck.

   Cool

3. 
   RickW | May 13, 2008 06:28am | #3

   Soaking the joint with vinegar will cause it to turn loose.
   Rick W

4. 
   WillGeorge | May 13, 2008 08:40am | #4

   A sharp metal scraper blade do wonders!

1. 
   xmike | May 13, 2008 02:05pm | #5

   Ah, De-Glue Goo!  You the Girl, Forest Girl.  Must take a trip to WoodCraft and procure some.

   Or, vinegar.  Hummmm, I have that on hand, but I'm a little shy about using it, since it wicks like water and I have plywood on the other side of that faceframe.  I hadn't heard that vinegar attacks yellow glue. Perhaps just a little bit, though.....

   And "shearing force", yes, yes, now I remember, and a nicely jointed 2 X 4 would be just the ticket to support the edge.

   Of course a couple of nice, thin putty knives under the other side of the top cabinet to induce a bit of separation pressure and will also serve to reduce friction when I wack it.

   So, here's the plan:

   1 - I'll insert a couple of putty knives between the base top and the cabinet bottom (on the opposite, non-glued side) to induce a small bit of separation pressure, and, of course, to reduce friction for when I wack it...

   2 - next, I'll apply a SMALL amount of vinegar along the regrettably glued edge and let it sit for a couple of hours to hopefully weaken the bond, but NOT start delaminating the plywood or discoloring same .... I may chicken out here, and use De-Glue Goo, instead...

   3 - while that's sitting, I'll joint two adjoining faces of a one foot 2 x 4, to spread the whacking force and to support the edge of the faceframe to prevent it from tearing or shearing off when I "wack" it, ...

   then "Whack!" with the old mallet.  :)?    :(?  We'll see.

   If all of this doesn't work, I'll have a very heavy cabinet, but hopefully not a damaged, very heavy cabinet.

   I'm installing a whole house fan at the moment, but as soon as I get back to this project, I'll let you all know how this comes out.  Thanks!!

   Mike D

    

   P.S. According to the spell checker, "wack" is not a word, but "whack" is.  Who knew?

1. 
   blewcrowe | May 13, 2008 02:30pm | #6

   Is it a piece that you could (mostly) bandsaw off?

1. 
   xmike | May 13, 2008 04:47pm | #7

   No, too big.

   Besides, then I'd have to kill myself!  :)

   Mike D

1. 
   bigfootnampa | May 14, 2008 02:13pm | #8

   Heat will soften the glue... though I can't tell if that's a feasible solution in this case from here.  A hot putty knife might help.

2. 
   saschafer | May 14, 2008 08:14pm | #9

   "Besides, then I'd have to kill myself!"

   That's not our problem. ;-)

   Heat will reliably soften the glue without harming anything else except the varnish (which you're going to have to redo anyway). A hair dryer may be enough to do the trick--you need to get it uncomfortably hot to the touch--but if not, a heat gun will (but be careful not to scorch the wood). It may take a while, since wood doesn't conduct heat all that well.

   -Steve

    

3. 
   xmike | May 20, 2008 05:35am | #10

   O.K., whole house fan is in and running quietly, and I promised follow-up on my glue-up fowl-up at this point and.....- here 'tis.

   Sometimes we get lucky. 

   I started by inserting a line of putty knives at the back of the two cabinets to slightly "stress" the errant glue line, prior to the next planned steps.  "Crack!"....  Yippee!  That's all it took!  The careful coating of yellow glue between the shellacked edge of the faceframe and the varnished base cabinet just parted with no fuss.  Who would have thought?

   Thanks to all for all the great advice - if ever I do this again, I know how to proceed if it does not resolve itself so readily.

   Mike D  :)