Abstract: Wettability is an important surface characteristics which describes what happens at the wood surface when it contacts with an adhesive. A wetting model was developed to describe the wetting process of adhesives at the woodbased material surface. The K value was used to evaluate the kinetics of wetting during the adhesive wetting process. Applying the wetting model, urea formaldehyde resin (UF) and phenol formaldehyde resin (PF) wetting properties of precompressed poplar at different compressing process conditions were investigated. Moreover, the effects of the parameters of poplar precompressing, e.g.compression ratio, the platen temperature and the pressing time on wettability were compared. The results showed that the wetting model could accurately describe the dynamic adhesive wetting process at precompressed poplar surface. The pressing time was the most significant factor which affects K value.