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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To use glue instead of a drill to put wooden climbing frame together?

41 replies

Furiousaboutinstarubbish · 03/05/2018 09:04

The ad for gorilla super adhesive outdoor bonding glue says it will stick anything, wood, concrete etc FOREVER.

Would I be unreasonable to use this as I'm useless with a drill to put my sons new wooden climbing frame together?

OP posts:
nomorespaghetti · 03/05/2018 09:05

Yes, if it was something that children weren't going to be playing on then maybe, but it's too risky with a climbing frame. I used no more nails with a broken bed frame once and it was shit. Fell apart so quickly.

scurryfunge · 03/05/2018 09:06

Use the drill! I've used gorilla glue on garden ornaments before and it has failed.

RunMummyRun68 · 03/05/2018 09:07

Fgs don't rely on gorilla glue!!!

You need a drill? Why? Won't it be a screwdriver that's needed?

lubeybooby · 03/05/2018 09:07

gotta be drill, sorry

Ifailed · 03/05/2018 09:10

It has been designed to be built in a certain way, no doubt with some flexibility in the joints. Gluing it will affect this, it could become catastrophically unsafe and fail, with injury or worse.

Zadocthepriest · 03/05/2018 09:10

We glued our window blind up with super-dooper, all-singing, all-dancing glue last week....it has fallen down!

Littlechocola · 03/05/2018 09:11

If you want your son to get hurt go ahead!
Ridiculous idea op!

vitara · 03/05/2018 09:12

Drills make holes. Wood sticks things together. A drill isn't a substitute for glue.

Are you children safe?

Nikephorus · 03/05/2018 09:12

It's fine for sticking things that won't have any weight on them (like wooden beading on a wall etc.), but nothing else.

Scrowy · 03/05/2018 09:12

I'm assuming that it needs screwing rather than drilling?

Most of these things come with the holes already drilled, so surely it's just a case of poke the screw in the right holes and screw it in. You could probably use an old fashioned screwdriver, it just wouldn't be as tightly secured as using a powered one.

Glue isn't a good idea, it's unlikely to hold, and if it does by some miracle, what happens when you want to take it apart again?

echt · 03/05/2018 09:13

OP, ask yourself: would you sit in a office chair that had been glued together?

Tartsamazeballs · 03/05/2018 09:13

Not sure if this is a joke or a Darwin award candidate 😂

onalongsabbatical · 03/05/2018 09:14

Don't do it. For all of the above reasons, YABU.

e1y1 · 03/05/2018 09:19

No, put it together EXACTLY as the manufacturer has stated.

Products in the U.K. are safety tested to the 9s (especially children’s products), so following instructions will minimise the chances of an accident as much as possible.

Also, if (heaven forbid) and accident were to occur, if you haven’t put it together as instructed, you will have no claim.

Melamin · 03/05/2018 09:20

The glue will only fasten the two surfaces of wood together. Even if it is the best glue in the world it will not stop the wood behind it from coming away. As someone pointed out above, these surfaces will move as the climbing frame is used so you need a joint that is both flexible and structural.

newbowls · 03/05/2018 09:21

This isn't real.

JessieMcJessie · 03/05/2018 09:24

Are you ON glue?

PerkingFaintly · 03/05/2018 09:25

Was just going about to post what Melamin has.

If you just join the surfaces, the frame may break so that the glue stays intact and the wood surface comes away with it.

Imagine glueing a heavy picture onto peeling wallpaper: the paper will stay stuck to the picture but come away from the wall.

Screws will distribute the load through the thickness of the wood, and as PP have said, the climbing frame will have been tested for this construction.

maggiecate · 03/05/2018 09:25

If the instructions say drill use a drill - you need to think about how the load is distributed and that it will change each time your son moves on the frame. The glue itself might hold but the wood might not!
A drilled and screwed join will still have the ability to flex slightly at the join to absorb this (there's still a slight gap in the joint) but the glued one won't so it'll put the stress on the rest of the structure.

Original poster
Furiousaboutinstarubbish · 03/05/2018 09:27

Thanks all! Will not be putting together with glue!

OP posts:
Original poster
Furiousaboutinstarubbish · 03/05/2018 09:28

And thank you for explanations about wood and joinery, really helpful, now I see why the glue isn't the way to go...

OP posts:
pigmcpigface · 03/05/2018 09:30

God no. The claims made on glue packets are vastly inflated. This is a climbing frame. It needs to be bolted together like a brick shithouse to avoid a horrible accident.

Charolais · 03/05/2018 09:31

lol

PlumsGalore · 03/05/2018 09:34

The only place I have seen no nail glue used by our best friend an amazing carpenter is on skirting boards. A children's climbing frame? never.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 03/05/2018 09:37

I used no nail glue on our skirting boards. They fell off [grim]