Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 15 hours ago
I spent $17 on 10 grams of UV powder and another $9 on a UV light to show the difference between scraping and sanding. The powder is basically invisible under normal light, but glows red under 365-nanometer UV, so I’ll mix a tiny amount into my wood glue until I get a good glow under the light.
Next, I’ll spread the glue along the edge of one board, making sure I get a good bead across the surface. Then I’ll bring in the second piece, line everything up, and clamp the two boards together with F-clamps.
I’ll glue two test pieces together. Once it cures, I’ll cut the glue-up in half. One half will get scraped, the other sanded. Now you see the dye…now you don’t…
Why am I doing this? Well, when you glue and clamp two boards together, you get a tiny river of squeeze out sitting on top of your stock. In a perfect world, waiting around 30 minutes and scraping the rubbery wood glue is enough to remove the bead. But that’s difficult when you have a jungle of wood clamps to navigate…and you can’t remove them to clean it up.
So what do you do when you find a large glue scab?
Your first instinct could be to grab a chisel or some kind of blade and try to cut or break it off. The problem is, once the glue has hardened, that blade can dig into the wood or tear fibers out with the glue, especially if it isn’t razor sharp.
So the safer looking option is to sand it away.
But sanding can work glue residue into the surface and pores, especially with open-grained wood. Later, when you add stain or finish, you may end up with a patch that doesn’t absorb or color like the rest of the piece.
A better option is a scraper. Instead of grinding the glue into dust, it slices it off of the surface cleanly. Once the excess is gone, you can sand if you need to.
Now that we’ve scraped and sanded both, let’s take a look. Here’s my sanded one. You can see trace glue particles embedded in the surrounding grain. But on the scraped side, the glue scab is gone and there’s no visible glue left down in the grain. Much better results.
But here’s another advantage to scraping: a sharpened scraper can leave a cleaner surface than sandpaper in the first place. I actually tested that in another video, and the scraped surface came out better. If you’d like to see that test and learn more about the card scraper, click here → youtu.be/emj-_IR_lFg
Like step by step projects? Check out the second channel! → @makethingswithrob
Buy me a beverage! → buymeacoffee.com/makethings ←
Become a patron! → patreon.com/makethings ←
Huge thank you to my patrons that keep this thing going!
*MAKER TEAM*
Michelle B
Keith Current
Rich Lightfoot
Tutor the Barbarian
Aubrey G.
Nukebert
Sam W.
Aaron Knows DIY
G. Salazar
David B.
Marc B.
Richard B.
Ben. K
Bill Patterson
D. Lundman
Make Things
#MakeThings #mtbitesize
I spent $17 on 10 grams of UV powder and another $9 on a UV light to show the difference between scraping and sanding. The powder is basically invisible under normal light, but glows red under 365-nanometer UV, so I’ll mix a tiny amount into my wood glue until I get a good glow under the light.
Next, I’ll spread the glue along the edge of one board, making sure I get a good bead across the surface. Then I’ll bring in the second piece, line everything up, and clamp the two boards together with F-clamps.
I’ll glue two test pieces together. Once it cures, I’ll cut the glue-up in half. One half will get scraped, the other sanded. Now you see the dye…now you don’t…
Why am I doing this? Well, when you glue and clamp two boards together, you get a tiny river of squeeze out sitting on top of your stock. In a perfect world, waiting around 30 minutes and scraping the rubbery wood glue is enough to remove the bead. But that’s difficult when you have a jungle of wood clamps to navigate…and you can’t remove them to clean it up.
So what do you do when you find a large glue scab?
Your first instinct could be to grab a chisel or some kind of blade and try to cut or break it off. The problem is, once the glue has hardened, that blade can dig into the wood or tear fibers out with the glue, especially if it isn’t razor sharp.
So the safer looking option is to sand it away.
But sanding can work glue residue into the surface and pores, especially with open-grained wood. Later, when you add stain or finish, you may end up with a patch that doesn’t absorb or color like the rest of the piece.
A better option is a scraper. Instead of grinding the glue into dust, it slices it off of the surface cleanly. Once the excess is gone, you can sand if you need to.
Now that we’ve scraped and sanded both, let’s take a look. Here’s my sanded one. You can see trace glue particles embedded in the surrounding grain. But on the scraped side, the glue scab is gone and there’s no visible glue left down in the grain. Much better results.
But here’s another advantage to scraping: a sharpened scraper can leave a cleaner surface than sandpaper in the first place. I actually tested that in another video, and the scraped surface came out better. If you’d like to see that test and learn more about the card scraper, click here → youtu.be/emj-_IR_lFg
Like step by step projects? Check out the second channel! → @makethingswithrob
Buy me a beverage! → buymeacoffee.com/makethings ←
Become a patron! → patreon.com/makethings ←
Huge thank you to my patrons that keep this thing going!
*MAKER TEAM*
Michelle B
Keith Current
Rich Lightfoot
Tutor the Barbarian
Aubrey G.
Nukebert
Sam W.
Aaron Knows DIY
G. Salazar
David B.
Marc B.
Richard B.
Ben. K
Bill Patterson
D. Lundman
Make Things
#MakeThings #mtbitesize
