Glue Choice for Cypress Shutters

A shutter specialist advises on adhesive selection for exterior shutter fabrication. October 16, 2013

Question
I'm making new cypress shutters in west central Florida, about a half mile from Tampa bay. Shutters will be made like a paneled door - V-groove flat paned (reversed raised). I will use glue joint for panels and cope and stick for frames, then drill for dowels through stiles and into rails and then plugs over dowel ends. What kind of glue? Would Titebond 3 (waterproof) be good enough or would Gorilla Glue or something else be better?

Forum Responses
(Adhesive Forum)
From contributor R:
My vote would be for epoxy. Gorilla Glue foams up everywhere in a cope and stick joint in a door. You just can't spread it thin enough to keep it from foaming out and around the panel. I know from experience! I've often wondered if anyone drills small weep holes into the panel groove on the bottom of the panels. It would let the water that weeps into the groove get out.

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From contributor M:
I used Gorilla Glue on one exterior order, where we were using raised panels. The foaming and expanding of the glue as it dried made the assembly process a messy nightmare, but we were using mortise and tenon joints. I also had several of my panels split where they had been joined. I was using 2 to 3 boards to create a 16" width panel. Prior to this order and ever since then, over 8 years ago, I have used Titebond 3 and have had no problems on exterior shutters with glue failure, but we do not do a lot of raised panels, mostly fixed louver. You probably already know this, but be careful if you use plugs from another wood type, especially interior grade dowels. They will shrink and pop loose over time. We use a plug cutter and make ours from the same wood the shutters are built from. Time killer, but worth it.