Glue Reacting with Cherry

A Cherry table shows witness lines at the glue joints. The culprit: a reaction between the wood and the glue. November 13, 2005

Question
We built a cherry table. We used Titebond II glue, Minwax stainable filler, 1# cut shellac, Minwax 235 stain, and ML Campbell Magnalac Precat Lacquer for the finish. After several months, a magic marker red line has appeared at most of the glue lines. What products do you think reacted to give this result?

Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
More than likely it was the shellac, especially if it was an orange. Some dyes will also have this effect on the glue, and it is usually immediate. It affects the glue itself and not the surrounding wood, so it shouldn't be noticeable if you have tight glue lines.

---

I have found that the Minwax Filler is the problem. I know that you can not paint it with CV or you will get a bright pink line. So I'm wondering if the catalyst in the precat lac caused it to do the same thing as the CV.

---

From the original questioner:
Thanks for all your help. It seems that even the joint lines that don't have filler in them are turning red. I think either pre-cat lacquer or the garnet shellac is reacting with the glue. Does anyone have a better glue that doesn't react?

---

From the original questioner:
I contacted the Tite Bond company and they told me that Tite Bond II sometimes reacts with cherry and gives a red witness line. They do hear of this complain once in a while. Their suggestion was to use the Original Tite Bond or Tite Bond Extended because they do not have the catalyst in them that the Tite Bond II has.