By George Vondriska; Photos Mike Krivit

Allow glue beads to dry to a rubbery consistency, and then peel them cleanly from the wood with a putty knife.

Prep the putty knife for peeling by working it vertically across a piece of fine sandpaper.

Remove the burrs from the face of the putty knife so it won't leave scratches on your wood.

Let the squeeze-out dry in place for 10 to 20 minutes, until it gets to a rubbery consistency. The exact time will depend on how big a puddle of squeeze-out you have, and how warm and dry it is in your shop, which affects the cure time of the glue.

When the glue bead gets to the right consistency, simply use a properly sharpened putty knife to peel the bead cleanly from the surface of the wood, Photo 1.

The key to this technique working well is the properly sharpened putty knife. It's not sharpened in a chisel-like fashion. The end of the knife needs to be square, not pointed. The easiest way to do this is by working the end of the putty knife across a piece of sandpaper, Photo 2.

After you've made a few strokes with the putty knife vertical, remove burrs by running the faces across the sandpaper. If burrs are left behind, the knife will leave scratches in your material.

I've had great success using this technique to deal with squeeze-out. It's important that you let the glue get to the right rubbery consistency, but don't let it dry so long that it gets hard, or you'll never get it off.