Titebond3 failure - too old

[LCHIEN]

Glue joint took me three dsys to complete.

I had to toss a 16 oz bottle of TB 3 that probably had 2 oz left in it. I used it and the glue did not set up overnight. Usually I find TB 3 can be handled in an hour or 2 after clamping.

these fell apart with just a little pressure. Stupidly I tried again, same result. The glue had dried to the consistency of crumbly rubber cement with no holding power . It was **** to chisel off.

Got a new bottle the code on it started A2505 and the code on the old bottle started A2010 so I assume it's from 2020 10th week or month... 5 years old been kept in the heat of the garage a lot.

I finally scraped off as much as I could, used PU Gorillglue and threw some screws on it to boot.

[dbhost]

I have about a half of a gallon of TB II that is setting up in the bottle.
I had projects that used a LOT of glue, big multi sheet plywood glue ups (to get 1.5" thickness) and it was cheaper buying a gallon than 2qts...

Hitting the trash this weekend as I go through more cleanup... I am going slow but steady... I need to stop tackling 5 projects at once.

I hate throwing away glue, but this stuff is useless now...

No idea of the date codes, but I know I bought it in 2010, and last used it a year ago...

[Jim Frye]

A long time ago, I bought a gallon jug of TBII thinking I was saving a bunch of money. I got about halfway through it before it started to get stringy and had to be tossed. No money saved there. Since then, I buy nothing larger than 16 oz. bottles. That size will last through my normal usage without going bad. Non-woodworking glues get purchased in 4-8 oz bottles and even then I've had some gorilla glue get old on me.

[dbhost]

At the time I bought my gallon, it was cheaper than 2 quart bottles. I used a little bit under half a gallon / 2 quarts so I did save money, but I was also doing some big glue ups that sucked up a LOT of glue...

If I ever buy it in that quantity again, I will certainly be working on a poor mans fiberglass build, which is rigid foam, canvas and TItebond III... Popular for teardrop trailers and such.

Since then I buy in 16 oz bottles...

[capncarl]

Are y’all telling me the numbers on the containers actually mean something? Today I was working out of a bucket of premix sheet rock mud that had 01 09 99 on it. Seemed fine to me.

[LCHIEN]

Are y’all telling me the numbers on the containers actually mean something? Today I was working out of a bucket of premix sheet rock mud that had 01 09 99 on it. Seemed fine to me.

A lot of products have dates that are clearly marked as manufacturing or recommended ue by dates.
A lot of products have codes on them that are just that, codes.
Often but not always they may be easily deciphered.
In this case A new bottle says A2505....
and a bottle several years old says A2010 and another I have says A2012 makes it an educated guess that the first 2 digits are year and the second are week or month of the year, often used in different industries.

Semiconductors (ICs and transistors) are traditionally marked YYWW year and week
Tires are coded WWYY for year and week. This one 40th week, 2020


Our Favorite Saw, the BT3000 are all marked YYWW (year and week), this one 1999 33rd week


Not all products or manufacturers, but if you have a few examples, you can tell.

[sweensdv]

To decode the Titebond glue date code, follow this format:

• The first letter indicates the country of manufacture (A for America).
• The next two digits represent the last two digits of the year of manufacture.
• The following two digits indicate the month (01 for January, 02 for February, etc.).
• The next two digits represent the day of the month.
• The last digits are the batch number for that day.
  
  3
  For example, a code like "A23051234" would mean it was made in America on May 12, 2023.

Titebond recommends that you do not use any glue more than two years after the date of manufacture.

[LCHIEN]

thanks!!!!