hot hide glue techniques

[peter kolb]

I would like to try hide glue. My shop is in the basement and the temperature
is 65-68 degrees. I have a shop made glue pot. I am aware of adding urea
to increase the working time. What techniques do you guys use to get the
parts to be glued above 70 degrees? Thanks for your help Peter

[John Coloccia]

Hairdryer/heat gun works. Be careful if you use a heat gun. You also could put a small space heater in the immediate vicinity of your glueup area. Yeah, you could use a little urea if you want to. BLAH. Not my cup of tea.

[Barry Vabeach]

Peter, I work in a mostly unheated garage ( 1 small electric space heater ) and I don't do anything to heat the wood and don't have any problems using hide glue. Try some samples first and see if you need to heat the work.

[Frank Drew]

Barry,

Do you use hot hide glue, or bottled hide glue?

[Barry Vabeach]

Peter, hot hide glue. I used the cheap tea kettle type warmer, I put the glue in glass jars, and put the jar in the water. I also keep an instant read thermometer in the water and try to keep the water around 150 - which gets the glue to 140. I doubt the old timers were that precise about how warm the glue got. I have used Bjorn glue with good results, but right now I am looking for another supplier, his minimum order is 5 pounds. I read somewhere that each time you make a new batch, you should make some test glueups and check them the next day, can't say I always do that, but I have on occasion. Another thing I have read is that it doesn't last long, OTOH, I turn on the cooker first thing in the morning, and turn it off when I am done for the day, then throw the jar in the fridge and repeat. I haven't had any problems and probably have used the same batch for over a month ( even though the lid is on the jar when it is in the cooker, you still have to add some hot water from time to time or it gets very thick.)

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Peter you'll be fine without heating the wood any. Imagine the conditions that the old timers used it in. It's pretty forgiving stuff.

I do the same thing that Barry does, minus the thermometer. The glue will get mold on it eventually, so I toss mine after a while and start with fresh granules.