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Glue and oiled walnut cabinets.

N

Njord Noatun

Super Member
Banned
I would like to semi-permanently affix a piece of plexiglass or glass on top of my speakers (don't ask - it is needed due to a big dog putting his front paws on top of the speakers to get a better vantage point for what is going on outside).

I was thinking of affixing the protective glass with 3 or 4 tiny dabs of a silicone glue such as GE Silicone II Household Glue:

149427_front500.jpg


This type of glue seems to hold pretty well, is very transparent, but is also pretty easy to peel off when no longer needed.

Do you think that applying such glue straight onto an oiled walnut cabinet will damage the wood in a permanent way, i.e. in a way that I cannot restore with a few basic refinishing steps such as light sand/oil/wax? I am of course concerned about irreversible damage such as staining, fading, drying out, and any other chemical reactions with the wood itself the glue might cause.

Thanks for any thoughts.

All the best,
 
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Rather than glue, can you heat-form the plexiglas with a lip that goes over the front and back edges maybe about half an inch? This would keep it in place without glue and also protect the edge of the cabinet from scratches.

Alternatively, a small oscillator, an old TV flyback, and a short length of wire along the front of the speaker should only be needed once. It worked just fine for the neighbor's dogs and our garbage cans. :D
 
Well lets see, silicone will sure bond to the glass and wood but will leave behind
a residue that may be a pain to get out of wood pores when its time to restore them.
Two other choices to consider are low bond translucent transfer tapes, they come in various thickness and bond strengths, I think 10 to 20 mil. might give you some play in regards to the surface being absolutely true or not.
Another one to look at is a very "grippy" sp type of rubber dot or strip
that you find under glass table tops.
The glass will lift off but not want to move horizontally.
Just my .02 cents
 
If it was me I would try plain old rubber cement. It has good adhesion and comes off easily. Try a tiny area first but my gut instinct says this will work for you. After a period of curing, your silicone may hold a little more than you want. The rubber dots would also be a good choice as would be small pieces of that shelf paper that is designed as a no slip surface. It looks like coarse screen.
 
6 squares of masking tape on top of speaker, maybe couple-few layers thick.
Stylish tape Xs even? You could even go further by using masking tape to stick 6, or 4 small squares/Xs of plastic(garbage bag, clear plastic) and gluing to the plastic.

Glue plexiglass to tape and/or plastic. Problem solved. Shouldn't move, and should be easily removed in the future. Recommend blue painters tape. Even though it states no more than 4 weeks IIRC, you can leave it. Worst case I've had is it leaves tape residue which so far has been easily removed with goo gone on both painted and natural stained/cleared etc wood. Yes, I've left blue masking tape on for well over a year, most of which pulled off as if it were a week old, couple spots more stubborn.
 
Thanks for your thoughts, guys. Instead of gluing the tops down onto the cabs themselves, I cut out some pads out of a bicycle inner tube, and glued five of them onto each glass top. So now the tops are just resting on top of the speakers, and I am hoping that the rubber pads in combination with the mass of the double-thickness glass will provide enough anti-skid force to prevent the tops from sliding around.
 
If doesn't work, try cutting up one of those 'sticky pads' that keep your cell phone from sliding around on the dash of a car. Get the good one that runs around $5. No glue needed.
 
That will work too, but be warned...those 'sticky pads' will leach all the oils out of the wood if it's not sealed with a polyurethane of some sort.
 
Njord Noatun said:
I would like to semi-permanently affix a piece of plexiglass or glass on top of my speakers (don't ask - it is needed due to a big dog putting his front paws on top of the speakers to get a better vantage point for what is going on outside).

I was thinking of affixing the protective glass with 3 or 4 tiny dabs of a silicone glue such as GE Silicone II Household Glue:

149427_front500.jpg


This type of glue seems to hold pretty well, is very transparent, but is also pretty easy to peel off when no longer needed.

Do you think that applying such glue straight onto an oiled walnut cabinet will damage the wood in a permanent way, i.e. in a way that I cannot restore with a few basic refinishing steps such as light sand/oil/wax? I am of course concerned about irreversible damage such as staining, fading, drying out, and any other chemical reactions with the wood itself the glue might cause.

Thanks for any thoughts.

All the best,
Click to expand...

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't put silicone on wood! Where it shows!
Go to any hardware store and get a pack of the little vinyl, self adhesive pads.
Like what you would put on the bottom of an object to keep the object from marking up wood furniture.
Process works IN REVERSE as well.
The little pads come in a variety of thicknesses and shapes. Small clear (opaque) discs should do the job.
The vinyl pads are EXTREMELY viscous and will "grip" clean glass, or just affix them to the glass. I put them on all of my speaker stands (better than the "blue tack" bullshit) and large ones on the bottoms of all my large speakers to protect their bottoms and corners.
PLUS: Any residue they might leave when you remove them can be cleaned up with lighter fluid or turpentine.

Craig
 
Get some foam shelf liner. I use it on stacked speakers to keep the upper speaker from sliding around. You can buy it at the hardware store. With the double thickness of glass the weight and surface area should hold it in place.
 
I worked for many years in the marine industry. Lots of boats get the GE Silicone treatment for one reason or another. In 20+ years of looking I can say that I have rarely seen a stain or other visible artifact of silicone on finished wood. A couple of times I have seen sun bleaching differences between spots where the silicone was and the nearby areas.

But, here's the rub - once silicone gets into the poors of the wood, no finish will stick properly. You'll have to sand below the silicone intrusion and during the process, you'll push the silicone deeper into the wood. It's REALLY tough to refinish after wood has been silicone treated.
 
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