I glued several wood samples using both T-88 and Titebond lll on both Doug Fir , Spruce and Pine. I left them to cure for two weeks and the Titebond consistently pulled more wood fibers of the adjoin piece than the T-88 when I broke them apart. I will be using Titebond lll for my spar webs and the rest of my wing.
Steve, I did everything the directions called for with the T-88 and when I glued the samples I clamped them with different pressures and they all came out pretty much the same. They broke right at the glue line and did not penetrate the wood surfaces very much at all. Maybe I have a bad batch of T-88. Maybe I should heat the glue first, but it was applied and stored well above 70 degrees. All of the samples I did with the Titebond lll, clamping the same way I did the T-88 all pulled wood fiber from the two pieces of wood. The T-88 did set up rock hard as did the Titebond. Now I have to ponder which to use. Have you ran samples? Talking to Leonard last week he told me he was happy with Titebond and also uses it. If you seal your wood properly with spar varnish don't you agree it should be OK? I would like to see someone else make some samples and see if they have similar results to what I found. T-88 is a bit pricey , but then on the other hand I don't want my wing to come apart in flight.