Common Mistakes, Tips, and Tricks for Glue-In Bolt Installation

Polling all developers out there to compile tips, tricks, and common mistakes for installation of glue-ins. Below are a few I've come across: 

• Make sure your hole is deep enough by checking the bit with the bolt before drilling (Especially for wave bolts or other bolts that you can't easily "dry fit") 
• Make sure your glue is mixed properly before filling the hole (look for consistent color before filling hole) 
• Make sure hole is completely cleaned out (use brush and manual pump - do not use a blow tube, as your saliva can mix with the dust and make it hard to remove) 
• Apply duct tape under / around the hole to prevent spillage onto the rock - clean up the excess glue and make it look nice! 
• Don't notch overhanging placements for wave or twist bolts - these should be hammered in with a rubber hammer to provide the interference fit necessary to keep the bolts in place while curing
  • Do not use a ferrous iron hammer on SS bolts!
  • There's really no need to notch bolts if not recommended from the manufacturer (see this thread for a long discussion on this) 
• If rap bolting, recommend drilling / cleaning holes first, and then gluing / installing bolts top down all at once to avoid the glue hardening in the container. Be sure to do one last blow out of the holes before installing each individual bolt

Any other thoughts from the experts out there? 

• recommend drilling / cleaning holes first, and then gluing / installing bolts top down all at once to avoid the glue hardening in the container. Be sure to do one last blow out of the holes before installing each individual bolt

Going bottom up (jugging up) to place bolts often works better, since you don't have to worry about the tensioned rope messing with the freshly placed glue-in.

And the very first tip - double check the expiration date on every tube of glue you will be using ahead of time! 

Extra nozzles, cotton rags, small bags for the initial mixing (you can check for hardening since if that initial not-well-mixed portion hardens, you know the well-mixed is hardening), bigger plastic bag for the used tubes, and always one more tube of glue than you think you will need in case you drop one (easy to drop....)!

Check that the base of the tube (that the dispenser's plunger pushes against) hasn't fallen out before you load it into the gun.

This happened to me once, and I've heard other reports of this happening.

• Make sure the bolt is where you want it before placing a glue-in.  I like to develop with temporary bolts (like Titen concrete screws) and often do my FA with the temp bolts before removing and replacing with glue ins.  Depending on your concrete screw/ glue in match up, you don't even have to re-drill on glue-in day
• Use a quality glue dispenser, not a $5-15 dispenser from the hardware store
• Don't use vinyl ester (A7, AC100) in warm conditions-the working time is not good unless it's cold outside.  Pure epoxy (EP800, Hilti RE500, Simpson-strongtie Set 3G etc) has much longer working time and is generally stronger glue. With the extra working time, you end up saving money on nozzles/ wasted glue, too
• NEVER notch (aka recess/ countersink) Wave, Crossover or Twist bolts
• Using rock dust can help cover bright/ mismatched color glue.  I've had pretty good success with carefully filleting the extra glue, then using a mixture of rock dust and water to make clay/mud to pack over the wet glue, then coming back and flaking off the mud once it's cured

Emphasis on make sure your hole is deep enough, make sure your glue is properly mixed. These are probably the two most common failures that result in botched/ dangerous bolt placements.

Also agree doing the glue ins from bottom-up is usually better, especially if on an overhang where you have protection above as directionals.  I like to rapel from the top, clipping my concrete screws on the way down for directionals, then remove the concrete screw and replace with a glue in before ascending up to the next screw and repeating.  Using pure epoxy in cooler temps allows for plenty of working time to do this right.

Bring a bunch of paper towels. 

Put your glue in a soft side cooler with some cool beverages if you're using quick cure epoxyacrylate like ac100

Use a 14mm bit or wallow the hole in softer rock for non steep wave bolt placements. A non interference fit ensures you can remove the bolt to add more glue if necessary.  

A standard 6" inch drill bit is a bit shy of the drill depth for waves.  Use an 8" drill bit and mark the switch on the bit with tape or permanent marker.  

Make sure all your holes are fully prepped in advance,  and bolts have been dry fitted if possible.  

Always have extra nozzles on hand. 

Make sure you get a no drip Caulk Gun with high Thrust ratio

Don't try to force the glue out if you getting abnormal resistance,  chances are your nozzle is sized and you'll break the cartridge by pushing too hard. 

Always check each bolt after curing.  

And the most important.  Glue ins don't fix crap rock,  don't bolt hollow, fractured,  or crappy rock. Just because glue ins are preferred in soft rock doesn't mean they'll hold in choss. The same rules apply for staying away from edges and roofs.

I use a roll bag (heres an example) to store all my odds and ends and make organization easier. I like ones with zippered pockets. The bucket boss one can even handle a double tube of glue. 

• Using tongue depressor sticks instead of your fingers for the last finishing touch saves your gear and yourself from getting covered in epoxy. Works also great to remove excessive glue coming out of the hole while pushing the bolt in before it makes a big mess.
• Especially when doing it the first few times, bring vinyl gloves to keep the glue off your hands / gear (dispose them when they are getting sticky). Bring lots of them. After gaining some experience and/or using tongue depressors, there is hardly any use for them anymore. They also work great when starting the tube as you can squeeze the glue in until it is mixed properly and close it with a knot. You can also squeeze a sample into each of the fingers every couple of holes to ensure things cure as expected.
• Ensure the epoxy is still mixed properly when the glue tube is almost empty. I had already two occasions where I run out of one component before the other one. Both times when using Sika 2020 and really at the very end (last half bolt hole), but still should be considered 
• Ensure you know what to do when gluing in cold weather. Some epoxy tubes can be used as cold as the minimum rock temperature and other tubes need to be warmed up to a temperature higher than the actual rock can be. 
• Use a bosom chair and add gear slings if it doesn't come with any to keep the weight of your gear from you.
• Use fire hoses as a budget rope protector (only works if you don't need more than about 2 ft / 60 cm).
• Organize all your s*** at a nice and flat spot at the bottom or top of the climb, and not after you are hanging on the rope already or once the mixed glue is already in the nozzle

• Electric guns make installing glue ins soooooo much better. I have a ryobi one that works great. No more hand pain! They also usually auto-retract after you release the trigger which is a nice feature that helps with drips. 
• I actually like going top to bottom when actually gluing the bolts in, as I find it faster and less fuckery involved when I have a bunch of crap on me. But I haven't done anything exceedingly steep. The only kind of steep thing I did was a re-bolt job where I did half the bolts in one go and then did the other half in the second go as directionals. 
• Agree with the duct tape to keep the outside of hold clean. I do this on the drilling run so it is ready to go on the glue run.
• To check glue hardening, I pre-rig 2 ziploc bags that I can dispense into, I do one before the first bolt and one after the last bolt with the assumption that if both harden properly, the glue between them should be good to go.
• I have used q-tips or popsicle sticks to clean up glue, or my finger (always wear latex gloves). I really like having these in some work from height hoppers that I got.
• I will usually tie a waste/garbage bag to a gear loop as somewhere I can chuck the above popsicle sticks into and purge glue into. 
• I have used ice clippers before to hold the bolts, I find it makes them easy to remove and quickly install.
• You can kind of save a slightly off-axis hole with some light notching depending on what type of bolt you are using.
  
  Honestly with prep, I feel like placing glue-ins is easier than mechanical bolts!
  
  

Connor, instead of squirting an additional bit of glue into the bag, you can just leave it in your nozzle. It will dry, and if you can snap it in half, it's good evidence it's cured.

For folks who put tape around the hole, what benefit have you found this provides over just cleaning with a rag or paper towel? I've found I can do a pretty good job of cleaning around the hole with paper towel, though there may be a lasting "glean" of some sort around the hole where the overflow came out if I spilled a ton - generally N/A if it's a light overflow.

A couple of tips not mentioned

• If you put your bolt in and realize you didn't put in enough glue, make sure you start refilling all of the way from the back again, as if there's no glue in the hole. This prevents air bubbles/gaps in glue.
• Your glue gun should obviously be tethered directly to you with a carabiner in some way, but if you want to hang it closer to you instead of dangling down, use the hook on the butt-end in to a gear loop or whatever else that it fits on. I'm constantly hanging mine off my gear loops, ascender, redirect draws, etc to keep it where it is most convenient to be
• The first thing you should do after squeezing glue into your hole is to immediately hit the release trigger to stop tension on the tube - this goes a huge way to preventing dripping. It's pretty much the only thing I do to prevent passive spilling and I basically never have an issue with it
• Throw a few paper towels and pairs of gloves in some object you 100% always bring when doing glue-ins (bolt bag, backpack, etc) - you'll probably forget to pack them sometime, and will be happy you have a stash handy.
• A pair of overalls with a ziploc trash bag liner in the chest pocket is a huge QOL boost when doing glue ins - it's just a lot easier to blindly reach into your chest pocket to grab/put away your paper towels/rags than to have to be intentionally putting away your glue gun and then intentionally looking for the rag and then intentionally putting it back away, etc. Let yourself keep your focus on the thing that actually matters i.e. the actual installation.
  • Bonus points: Overalls are so nice for rebolting as well. Throwing old bolts/hangers/etc in the chest pocket, keeping little attachments in there, etc. A chest pocket is just so nice in most development cases
• My chime in for the top-down vs bottom-up methods for drilling. 100% depends on temperature and steepness for me. If it's steep and I need redirects, I'm probably going to try going bottom-up (so that the redirects are already in situ as I'm moving around). If it's hot, I'm going to go top-down to minimize travel time between gluing. If it's hot and overhanging, I'm probably going to reconsider just what I'm doing with my life (or, more accurately, I'm going to make intentional efforts to keep my glue/nozzles chilled until it's time to glue and try to knock it out as fast as possible bottom-up).

Really good advice but I can’t recommend enough getting the glue from reliable sources. Twice now Iv got bunk glue and found out mid set. Between bad mix or physical container damage with the plunger 

Jabroni McChuffersonwrote:

Really good advice but I can’t recommend enough getting the glue from reliable sources. Twice now Iv got bunk glue and found out mid set. Between bad mix or physical container damage with the same linger. 

Honestly I think what Ryan is doing at https://hownot2.com/ is super rad and I try to buy as much bolting gear from him as possible, he has a few different glues! https://hownot2.com/collections/glue

Tal good point about the nozzle, never thought of that, I am just dispensing a quarter sized dollup anyway so it ain't much waste.

The duct tape thing is just nice imo in case you misjudge the amount of glue the hole needs and you end up overfilling and it squirts a bunch out, it makes it so you don't smear glue all over the wall when you wipe away. I am not enough of an artisan with paper towels to do it cleanly so I use the duct tape backer as protection, someone else might be better than me and not need it. 

Connor Dobsonwrote:

Honestly I think what Ryan is doing at https://hownot2.com/ is super rad and I try to buy as much bolting gear from him as possible, he has a few different glues! https://hownot2.com/collections/glue

Tal good point about the nozzle, never thought of that, I am just dispensing a quarter sized dollup anyway so it ain't much waste.

The duct tape thing is just nice imo in case you misjudge the amount of glue the hole needs and you end up overfilling and it squirts a bunch out, it makes it so you don't smear glue all over the wall when you wipe away. I am not enough of an artisan with paper towels to do it cleanly so I use the duct tape backer as protection, someone else might be better than me and not need it. 

Yeah I tried hardware stores and it’s a crap shoot. I bought from that site just for the peace of mind