Hide glue pot

[William A Johnston]

I am thinking about making a couple small keepsake boxes out of Walnut. I'm not sure what finish to apply and I've never used Hide glue.

1.) Is hide glue good for this application.
2.) The hold heat warmer is too expensive for me to purchase.
3.) Would a coffee cup warmer get hot enough to heat up a jar of water with a small jar inside with the hide glue?

Lee Valley has a smaller glue system that is affordable but the web site said out of stock until May 21st.

I've been reading about hide glue and from what I understand I should use 192g strength but there is so much information on you have to keep it around 145 degrees to work with it.

This is the warmer I was looking at purchasing. You can adjust the temperature.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074NYJL9J

Thanks for any advice.
Bill

[roger wiegand]

Lots of folks use baby bottle warmers or mini crock pots for hot glue warmers. They run about $1 at garage sales. You might need a rheostat (non-electronic lamp dimmer) to keep the temperature low enough. I think you want something that heats the sides of your container as well as the bottom. I put water in my pot and then have some nice wide mouth jars that fit nicely inside for the glue, making it easy to put a lid on between uses.

Hide glue is wonderful stuff. I use it exclusively in my piano and organ work, and increasingly for general woodworking. Not having to clamp every joint can save a lot of time and hassle.

[Charles Taylor]

Lots of folks use baby bottle warmers or mini crock pots for hot glue warmers. They run about $1 at garage sales. You might need a rheostat (non-electronic lamp dimmer) to keep the temperature low enough. I think you want something that heats the sides of your container as well as the bottom. I put water in my pot and then have some nice wide mouth jars that fit nicely inside for the glue, making it easy to put a lid on between uses.

Hide glue is wonderful stuff. I use it exclusively in my piano and organ work, and increasingly for general woodworking. Not having to clamp every joint can save a lot of time and hassle.

I do exactly as Roger describes on those infrequent occasions I use hide glue: a mini crock pot, a dimmer control, and an electronic probe thermometer to monitor the temperature. I put the glue in a glass jar and the jar in a water bath in the crock pot. The temperature probe goes in the water.

If I used hide glue more often, I'd probably consider getting a proper glue pot.

[John K Jordan]

Lots of folks use baby bottle warmers or mini crock pots for hot glue warmers. They run about $1 at garage sales. You might need a rheostat (non-electronic lamp dimmer) to keep the temperature low enough. I think you want something that heats the sides of your container as well as the bottom. I put water in my pot and then have some nice wide mouth jars that fit nicely inside for the glue, making it easy to put a lid on between uses.

Hide glue is wonderful stuff. I use it exclusively in my piano and organ work, and increasingly for general woodworking. Not having to clamp every joint can save a lot of time and hassle.

When rebuilding my player piano I used an old single-burner hot plate with a temperature control and melted the glue in a small glass jar sitting in old sauce pan containing some water. I never measured or paid attention to the heat except to turn it up if the glue set up too quickly. I also don't know anything about the type of glue - I just bought a little from the Player Piano company along with some parts and materials.

I too loved using hide glue. It was so quick to work with and as my player piano restoration mentor said, using hide glue lets the next guy repair it 100 years from now. I was able to take much of the old mechanism apart and remove the worn out bellows material with an old clothes iron. I rebuilt the player mechanism maybe 35+ years ago and it still works perfectly today.

JKJ

[David Eisenhauer]

Neither one of the two coffee cup warmers I have tried out over the years even kept my coffee warm enough. If you want more detailed info on this subject, it seems to me there was a pretty extensive thread on this subject recently and a search should come up with lots of info.

[Alan Rutherford]

Mini-crock pot, $3 at a thrift shop. It's only about 3" inside. I fill it half-full of water with a baby-food jar for the glue. The pot has a clear plastic lid and I drilled 2 holes in the lid for cheap thermometers: one in the glue and one in the water. I haven't used it much or for big jobs but it's been excellent. I pre-mix the hide glue from powder and store it in the freezer in chunks the size of a large marble wrapped in plastic. Starting with hot water greatly shortens the start-up time. A little weight in the jar or less water in the pot helps stop it from floating. Try it. You'll like it.

[Tom M King]

Per a recommendation from Derek a few years ago, I ordered a wax warmer off ebay. For 15 bucks with free shippng to your house, you get a thermostatically controled small unit wiht a lift out metal insert. It works like a charm. Search "wax warmer" on ebay.

[Andrew Seemann]

Note that although hide glue isn't necessarily difficult to work with for most operations, it is different to work with. If you don't get the pieces together while the glue is still hot, you can get a cold joint with no strength. Warming the pieces can help. You also need to plan ahead when you use it, since the globules need to be soaked a while before heating. Additionally, hide glue is basically non-food-quality Jello (you can actually use unflavored gelatin in a pinch), so you need to either refrigerate the extra in the pot after use or throw it out and clean the pot, or you end up with a gad awful smelly mess. Also it is perishable, so it only keeps so long in the fridge before the bacteria render it unusable for glue.

You may find that you need to work much more quickly than you are used to. Another thing to note, is that although you get a good initial tack from the glue cooling and gelling, you don't develop the full strength of the joint for about 24 hours, so you do need to be careful handling the uncured joints. This probably won't be much of an issue for small boxes though.

One possibility to try is commercial liquid hide glue. Purists hate the stuff and come up with all kinds of rationalizations of why it is the devil incarnate, but it works just fine for normal woodworking as long as it is fresh. It is hide glue with the addition of urea. Unlike hot hide glue it has a long open time, longer than regular titebond. It does not have the initial tack and hold that hot hide glue has. It does have most of the disadvantages of hide glue (no water resistance, long total cure time, smelly sticky mess) and some of the advantages (relatively easy to reverse with heat and water, isn't totally finish-and-stain-phobic).

Hide glue has its uses and is quite handy for certain operations and is a good thing to have in your repertoire of skills, but don't feel compelled to use it:)

[Andrew Seemann]

FYI- if you ever want to see threads that make our sawstop discussions sound like mild banter among friends, go to a musical instrument forum and type the word 'glue' in the search box:)

[William A Johnston]

Thanks for everyone's help. I asked a friend and he has a baby crock pot he will give me. So I'll give that a try. I'm going to try my hand with the hide glue as it will give me something else to learn and expand my wood working knowledge which is lacking in so many areas.

Commercial cabinets is one thing but I don't consider that craftsmanship. The projects you guys do amaze me. I've made a bunch of nice end grain cutting boards and cheese board's but there is no jointery in making them. I figured a small jewelry box for Mom, Daughter and girlfriend would be a nice learning project from corners to final finish.

Thanks again,

Bill

[Wayne Cannon]

Try the Rival brand "Hot Pot Express". It's cheap; widely available; thermostatically controlled; and you can cut a hole in the plastic top for your glue brush.

See:
http://www.spurlocktools.com/tech_tips1.htm

[Sam Blanchard]

2nd Tom King's recommendation on the wax warmer. I got one a few years ago and love it. The adjustable heat control makes it easy to get your desired temp/thickness. I use an instant read thermometer along with the warmer. Here's one as an example:
https://www.amazon.com/ALINICE-Portable-Electric-Melting-Removal/dp/B071RNTWFR/ref=sr_1_18_s_it?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1515404954&sr=1-18&keywords=wax+warmer

[Robert Engel]

+1 on the Mini Hot Pot.

[David Eisenhauer]

A word to folks who have never used hot hide glue - It is good glue for furniture making, but it is very sticky to use in comparison to typical yellow or white woodworking glues. It is easy to result in a sticky mess from the glue pot to your hands to your project.

[John K Jordan]

Try the Rival brand "Hot Pot Express". It's cheap; widely available; thermostatically controlled; and you can cut a hole in the plastic top for your glue brush.

See:
http://www.spurlocktools.com/tech_tips1.htm

Excellent tips on that web page.