I want to help out a friend with some pew-pew action, but he is interested in engraving/cutting some layers of veneer that are glued together with Titebond wood glue. Is that safe?
I haven’t strayed far from 
land, so I’m not sure and couldn’t find a definitive answer here anywhere. Thanks in advance awesome and knowledgeable glowfolk!
I think I would be ok risking it, assuming you’re venting outside and so on. I checked the MSDS and it lists “No known significant effects or critical hazards” if you ingest it. Of course that doesn’t make it a good idea to eat it, and that doesn’t mean nothing noxious can be released if it’s burned, but I’m saying if you can consume it, I’d be surprised if it were super hazardous to burn. That said, I experimented with a 3D engrave today on some basswood which had been joined with wood glue. Of course, the glue doesn’t disintegrate at the same rate as wood, so I have a nice raised glue line running through the middle of my engrave… Best of luck!
Yeah a fast online check says it pretty much gasses out the same stuff as everything else when burning.
Just go online and look for an MSDS. Anything sold should have one these days.
The Aluminum Chloride jumped out at me. It will release hydrogen chloride at 178c according to the internets (and also when in contact with water).
That being said, the glue can also make cutting inconsistent.
Can you cut and then glue? That’s what I did with this:
Odd, the msds I read did not show that.
I think it matters what Roman Numerial is after the name (I II III IV, etc)
http://www.franklininternational.com/msds/1411.042k0gro0020.pdf
Oddly no. The MSDS above is from Titebond.
Ultimate or Premium in name makes it a different product maybe.
http://www.titebond.com/ProductMSDSSearchCO.php?Frames=Y&B1=Submit&MSDS_Prod=e8d40b45-0ab3-49f7-8a9c-b53970f736af
I read the one linked to above (as you noted). Everyone’s risk tolerance is different, but it is HCl in the first MSDS.
Good to know on the difference between Ultimate and Premium. I’d probably look at the two and not even note a difference when grabbing one off the shelf.
So how risky would that be?
If it a one time cut and your exhaust is up to snuff, I would see if it burns. I have put a lot of things under a laser that probably shouldn’t have been though, so buyer beware on this advice.
If you are going to be burning a metric ton of it, may want to dig deeper as to which you used (Ultimate or Premium).
More info on this glue - 3 flavors
http://www.titebond.com/news_article/13-05-01/Understanding_the_Big_Three.aspx
It’s your Glowforge. 
I have no idea. No idea of the content released from the quantity of material being burned. No idea of the content that leads to damage. Etc. just thought I’d point out a potential risk.
It’s something I’d probably stay away from. A lot of stuff, like formaldehyde in a lot of plywood’s, doesn’t bother me so much, because my venting is pretty good. But I’d hate to do something corrosive to the machine.
So Titebond Ultimate looks good, and Titebond Premium is a no-no… Looks like Titebond Original doesn’t mention the aluminum chloride, so we think that’s good as well? http://www.franklininternational.com/msds/5062.01ot0gro0020.pdf
When researching Titebond glues, I noticed on the website here under technical highlights section it says Titebond Original is a type of “aliphatic resin” which doesn’t sound like something that should be lasered. So doesn’t look like you can use original titebond either?
I don’t know if this is entirely relevant but on the topic of wood glue, I use Gorilla Wood Glue for most of my projects (we don’t get Titebond easily in the UK). I have checked the information on this and it says it is “Polyvinyl Acetate Polymer product in water” which doesn’t sound like it should go in the laser at all. I found this information here on the Gorilla Glue website. So I only assume that this is not safe?