I will be starting construction on my 42% bi plane in a few weeks and I need some help with glue. I would prefer to stay away from CA as much as possible.

Would you recommend I use yellow carpenters glue or poly glue in it's place?

Yes. Carpenter's glue is the best glue you can use. Just make sure the joints fit well and double-glue end grain. What that means is putting some glue on, letting it soak in for a minute and then putting a little more glue on when you put the part in place.

I have a page on my site that explains glues in a lot more detail.

Adhesives used for model-building

Thank you.

I agree with CafeenMan, use any of the alphatic resin glues. While there are many good ones, my favorite is Titebond II as it is quite water resistant as well. Just make close fitting joints and it always helps to use enough clamps or jigs to keep the joints immobile for at least 20 minutes, preferably longer. If and when you use any epoxy, shy away from the fast setup times, use at least 30 minute or slower. Even then all epoxys (including the 5 minute type) do not reach full strength for about 24 hours or more.

I thought titebond was a poly glue? Or am I confusing it with something with a similar name?

Titebond is carpenter's glue.

Yes. I was confusing titebond with elmers probond.
If I am correct, poly glue needs water to activate? Other than robart hinges are there any other advantages of probond poly glue?

I think pro bond is a product line. Not sure, but I'm pretty sure there is Pro Bond Poly and Pro Bond Aliphatic (carpenter's). I wouldn't build with poly - it's too messy and too expensive. I build all my planes with carpenter's glue and joint failure isn't ever a problem. Bad piloting is a problem, but good piloting doesn't come in a bottle, unfortunately.

Thanks caffeenman. I will take your advise. I am getting excited. This will be my first plane built from plans. It is a 42% weeks solution from simodels.com CA would get awfully pricey.

Paul - This sparked my memory about taking your advise on the Tite-bond II versus I. I built my wing using Tite-bond II and noticed it was rubbery (as you mentioned) during the sanding process. I then bought some Tite-bond II for the fuse and found it a lot more friendly to sand.

Thanks for the advise. It was right-on-target.

Yeah... I remember being asked about that. Didn't remember that it was you though. Glad it was helpful. To be honest, I wasn't sure I was right because I was at the Sun 'N' Fun fly-in last year watching a guy build ribs for a full-scale and asked him about it. He told me that it was rubbery because I didn't let it dry long enough before sanding. Honestly, though, it seemed like it was on the rubbery side even after a week. Strength was good so I'm not worried about that.