Why is my glue failing?

[Eggplant]

hi all, 

I would like to ask your opinion. I have been making leather mutes, out of heavy leather (from veg tan doglead butt leather) and using glue from Tandy (the ecoweld)- gluing the two pieeces together. The seam is in the middle, gluing two pieces together. I follow the instruction, use a mallet on it afterwards, and then leave it under pressure for 24 hours. But sometimes the glue fails. I have just had a batch do this. And I have no idea why.  Is there a limit to how long it lasts once open? 

I was wondering if anyone else had had similar problems, or has an idea of what it can be? 

Thank you in advance.

[Rahere]

1. Are you allowing it to soak in before joining? It needs to be nearly dry for the latex strands to entangle.
2. The flesh side can be very "strandy", rather than a solid collagen surface for the glue to to key to. Try sanding it down

Edited November 26, 2020 by Rahere

[Dwight]

Toss that garbage glue . . . go to Weldwood contact cement

It is great stuff.

May God bless,

Dwight

[toxo]

Try a small tube of Gorilla glue. You need to just damp the leather and it will foam slightly but by Christ it sticks. Had to cut the leather after one mistake.

[Frodo]

Use Weldwood as Dwight suggests  [He knows things]  

Then. spread your glue in a then layer, let dry, then apply another layer

In the words of a 20th century Chef/Philosopher Justin Wilson  I garr- ron- tee it will work 

New Orleans Cajun, Justin Wilson - Red Snapper - YouTube

[Eggplant]

Thank you for your advice, I’ll try that out. 

[Dwight]

The only caveat with Weldwood . . . on the hair side (slick side) you need to wire brush it a bit to break up that slick layer.  

Once you have done that . . . if you put on the light first coat . . . let it COMPLETELY DRY then a follow up light coat . . . let it dry and then put the two together . . . then lay a small weight on your project for a couple hours . . . yeah . . . you'll cut it apart or you won't get it apart.

I had a holster I was doing several years ago . . . piece got on wrong . . . pulled it apart with pliers and some hard grunts . . . literally pulled off the lowest layer of the leather fibers.  BUT . . . I was able to salvage the project . . . just re-glued it.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Aven]

I have to wonder if the Tandy glue froze at some point.  Several of the "white" glues become useless if they freeze.  Which is why I never buy glue if I know there is a chance it will freeze, whether its from a shop or online.  Either way it has to get transported. 

The other thing is that the leather you are showing looks a bit oily.  In my experience, white glue isn't the choice for oily leather.  For that I use Weldwood.