Do you think my glue has mold?

Builder's Forum
1

Hey all,

I have sanded my deck and hull, but whenever I removed the deck and hull from the forms to fair them I discovered this black looking stuff.

Anyone know what this is?

http://i56.tinypic.com/33nizxs.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/2me5z61.jpg

It looks like some type of mold, and if so, what do I do about it after I scrape off all the glue?

Thanks in advance,

Chris F

2

I have scraped and sanded all the black stuff (mold?) off the inside of my hull, and I hope it won't come back or create some kind of trouble whenever I want to put on the epoxy.

BTW, the mold looking stuff as seen in the two pics was on bare cedar.

 Any ideas out there would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Chris F

3

Chris,

first a caveat: I'm a first time boat builder myself so I'm not speaking from experience.

I've seen similar looking mold in a woodworking project and I simply sanded and planed the mold off. It doesn't appear to have come back after I polyurethaned the wood so you will probably be fine going forward with epoxy + finish.   You might try to soak the places where the mold was in denatured alcohol. It shouldn't  affect the color of the wood or the epoxy, but it likely to kill most of the live fungus that might still be there.  It might not kill the spores but they won't get a chance to 'sprout' again if you starve them of water and oxygen (i.e., once the wood is encased in epoxy).

 

Mihai

4

Mihai,

Thanks for your comments about my problem.

All the black mold looking stuff is gone (via scraping and sanding), and I hope I can get epoxy on the wood before I see any return. If I see any I will use your alcohol for removing the new stuff.

Thanks again,

Chris F

5

FYI about my mold looking stuff!

I called Titebond and asked them about mold in glue, and they said if the glue did have mold in it, you would notice it in the container and the odor would be substantial.

They also told me that the blackish discoloration I speak of would be a result of glue coming in contact with iron, and while they have heard of this type of reaction in oak, they have not noticed it with cedar

The fix for this black discoloration of the wood with glue is scraping and sanding.

Hope this helps someone else during their build!

Chris F