I used water when I started using gorilla glue, then decided to try it without, and have not noticed a difference (other than the less foaming, which IMO is a good thing. It still foams quite enough to fill any gaps between the drill size and the tube size (even for slightly off size bits, like using a 10.5mm in place of a 10mm that is too dull, DAMHIKT...) I've turned pens done this way about 3 hours after gluing, and have not had a problem (yet...) It just seemed odd to me to take my nice dry blanks and add water to them....