Reasons NOT to use hide glue for workbench

[Jim Koepke]

You could probably count on one hand the number of workbenches that are still in use today after 100 years of continuous use (even ones that didn't get continuous use are few and far between). The problem is determining what retired the bench before its 100^th birthday. Did the hide glue crack and fail? Did it take so many dings and dents that after 80 resurfacings there was nothing left to resurface? Termites? Rot? Did someone have a bad winter and need more firewood?

Maybe a worker retires where no one wanted an old bench other than family. Over time even the family has no place to use or keep it. A bench that remains in pristine condition after a century has likely not seen much real work taking place upon its surfaces.

A bench my father built of construction lumber and nails had years of use until he retired. It sat protected in my yard for a few years until a friend had a place to use it. After many years he moved and left it in the garage of his home. Neither of us know the new owners. My hope is they will find it useful for many years to come.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

... reversibility is one of the main reasons it gets used, and probably the most legitimate instrument making reason to use it. Shock, water, and heat can all be used, or combinations thereof as appropriate....

The ability for the next rebuilder to take the joints apart is the reason I used hide glue when extensively rebuilding a player piano mechanism. The books, player mentor, and a piano technician friend strongly recommended this. If this 80+ year old piano had not been put together originally with hide glue I probably would have had great difficulty rebuilding it. For this use the working time wasn't a problem since there were scores of smaller joints but no large assemblies. A hot iron was my friend.

Still plays fine at least 30 years later!

player_piano.jpg player_piano_roll.jpg

JKJ

[Doug Dawson]

You could probably count on one hand the number of workbenches that are still in use today after 100 years of continuous use (even ones that didn't get continuous use are few and far between). The problem is determining what retired the bench before its 100^th birthday. Did the hide glue crack and fail? Did it take so many dings and dents that after 80 resurfacings there was nothing left to resurface? Termites? Rot? Did someone have a bad winter and need more firewood?

You'd probably want to query "historic industrial" sources. Colonial Williamsburg? The museums? Heirs of the factories of the past? Even the patternmaker-type sources from the early 20th century (the Henry Ford museum, design shops, etc.) We can't _all_ have been using modern adhesives. If somebody wants to do a Masters thesis on this, hey...

[J. Greg Jones]

How are the benches doing that are already 100+ years old...

Interesting that you should ask that. With the bench build I discussed above, we replaced every bench in Kelly’s shop... but two. One is the LN bench in the middle of the picture (excellent bench BTW, nicer than the ones they make today). The second is the bench seen along the wall in the right side of the picture. Honestly I don’t remember the entire history of the bench, other than it was Kelly’s first workbench and it is well over 100 years old. Still in action today.
2AB77860-E330-4767-81FE-291E0B3B7799.jpeg

[Warren Mickley]

You could probably count on one hand the number of workbenches that are still in use today after 100 years of continuous use (even ones that didn't get continuous use are few and far between). The problem is determining what retired the bench before its 100^th birthday. Did the hide glue crack and fail? Did it take so many dings and dents that after 80 resurfacings there was nothing left to resurface? Termites? Rot? Did someone have a bad winter and need more firewood?

I have seen hundreds of 19th Century workbenches. I have worked on some. I would be surprised if there were not a dozen or two in use in my township. Here is a picture of one of the Dominy benches. All three have seen over 150 years of continuous use, starting in the mid 18th century.
In the original shop:

dominy-bench 2.jpg

At Winterthur:

dominy schwarz.jpg

[Christopher Charles]

Hi Chris,

I use hide glue for nearly everything, but I used yellow glue (titebond 2) when I glued the top for my Roubo. To minimize (mental) stress, I glued up the top by building up larger sections over three or four gluing sessions, which eliminated concerns about open time. No issues after a mere six years.

Good luck!

[Chris Fournier]

Is there any good reason "to " use hide glue on a bench? You can get PVAs with very generous open times from many manufacturers.

[Curt Putnam]

The one thing I've not yet seen mentioned is moisture. As in coffee or soda or beer spilled on the top. I do not think that such a (presumptively) brief exposure would destroy the glue bond, but then I have little familiarity with hide glue.

[Andrew Seemann]

The one thing I've not yet seen mentioned is moisture. As in coffee or soda or beer spilled on the top. I do not think that such a (presumptively) brief exposure would destroy the glue bond, but then I have little familiarity with hide glue.

A spill that ran off or was cleaned up probably would not do much. Leaving a wet rag on the glue joint overnight or some kind of constant exposure to water like a roof leak might do some damage though.

[J. Greg Jones]

Just as a FYI, when I discussed earlier about using hide glue in the workbench builds, its use was specific, and limited to, to the drawbored M&T joints. Everything else on the benches was glued with Titebond II. I can’t imagine any benefit to glueing up a workbench top with hide glue.