Hot melt glue?

[Wade Lippman]

When making a bowl I like to put a faceplate on the blank and turn the outside and bottom. Then I glue a block to the bottom with gorilla glue and put the faceplate on the block, and turn the inside. Finally I cut the block off with a bandsaw.

Yesterday I bought a hot melt glue gun for another purpose and was surprised at how good the adhesion was. Could I use hot melt glue instead of gorilla glue to glue the block on, or is it not strong enough for that?

I was actually taught to use superglue, but never found it to be dependable.

[roger wiegand]

I use titebond normally, or fish glue if I'm in a hurry for small pieces, or hot hide glue if the glue pot is hot. Hot melt glue might work if you choose the right variety-- there are dozens of different glues available , though probably not at the hobby store (try McMaster Carr). You'll want a non-flexible variety, I think. With the typical hobby store glue I wouldn't turn anything very big, and I'd armor up in anticipation of a possible failure. For big pieces I think I'll stick with Titebond (pun intended), I know it's dependable.

I don't remove the block with a bandsaw, but rather reverse mount the piece and turn it off.

I'd certainly agree with superglue being problematic. That's not a choice I'd make.

[Tim Elett]

Others will also chime in, but I for one never thought hot melt held wood very well. Have you ever thought about double sided tape? I have been using it to sand and lightly turn. I apply to my face plate then apply pressure and let it set for five minutes. Using the wood glue is your safest option or a chuck.

[Bob Vavricka]

Years ago when I was first looking into turning bowls, I bought a video of a (I believe) Canadian woodturner who used hotmelt glue to hold his blanks to a waste block. He melted the glue in an old electric skillet, dipped the wood blank in it and then fastened it to the waste block. The video was on a VHS tape, I'll have to see if I still have it somewhere and the name of the turner.

[Bob Vavricka]

Turner was Bill Grumbine and looks like he was a member of this forum. See this thread Faceplate turning (sawmillcreek.org)

[Denny Nebgen]

I have used hot melt glue lots of times. I often glue a block to the base of a segmented bowl and use that joint to completely turn the outside and inside of that bowl. Then cut the block off the bottom to reverse the bowl using a vacuum chuck to finish turn the bottom of the bowl.

The trick is get a glue gun about 100 watts and not one of these 12 to 15 watt ones. They do not get the glue hot enough.

The only time I have had a hot melt glue joint fail was on a piece that had been glued up for several months before turning. Could be the glue breaking down to light over time but, other than that, I have never had one fail. YMMV.

[Pat Scott]

Search for Sprague Woodturning on YouTube. He lives in Canada and has been using hot melt glued for 20 years and melts it in an old fry pan. His latest videos are resin casting, but if you watch a few of his other bowl inlay videos he'll talk about the glue.

[Tim Elett]

Years ago when I was first looking into turning bowls, I bought a video of a (I believe) Canadian woodturner who used hotmelt glue to hold his blanks to a waste block. He melted the glue in an old electric skillet, dipped the wood blank in it and then fastened it to the waste block. The video was on a VHS tape, I'll have to see if I still have it somewhere and the name of the turner.

I was referring to the comment ,I purchased a glue gun, I would not trust the glue gun or glue I have from the hobby store.

[Reed Gray]

Well, like others have said, it does work. Safest bet it an industrial glue gun. The hobby shop ones do not really get the glue hot enough. For me, I figure the mounting on a waste block to be extra work. I use a recess. Others use a tenon. For mounting the blank, I use a big forstner bit, 2 5/8 inches, to drill a recess in the bowl blank, and expand the chuck into that. Turn the outside, then reverse and turn the inside. Chuck never comes off the lathe. There are a few more tricks, but that is the general idea. I cover that in one of my videos, 'Mounting things on the lathe'.

robo hippy

[Richard Coers]

I have no idea how you keep the bowl on the same center line with all that gluing and flipping the bowl to do the inside. Also no one has mentioned size of the blank, a very critical component to this discussion. I was taught not to glue anything and always have a tenon to grab. With the right kind of dovetail jaws, the tenon only has to be 1/4" long on smaller bowls. How do you cut off a block on the bandsaw on a finished bowl and keep the bowl from slamming down on the bandsaw table?

[David Walser]

I've not used a bandsaw for this purpose. However, if I did, I'd use a parting tool part the bowl from the glue block until just a small nub was left. Then, I would use the bandsaw to cut through that nub. As I said, I don't use that method. I use a small flush-cutting handsaw.

[David Walser]

Wade -- Hot melt glue is more than adequate for this purpose. I frequently use it, particularly for smaller items such as pendants where I find the glue's gap-filling ability helpful. Allow me to address a couple of additional points:

1 - The shape of the glue block matters. Lyle Jamieson has an excellent video on bowl turning in which he demonstrates using a glue block. He argues that a good glue block provides a more secure hold with less vibration than you can get with a 4-jaw chuck. When using a glue block, Lyle makes the glue block slightly concave across its face. This ensures the glue block will not rock. (We shape a bowl's bottom similarly for the same reason.) Because the glue block is slightly concave, he just applies glue to the outside edge of the glue block. A single bead of glue just inside the circumference will do. Lyle's preferred glue is medium CA. Hot melt glue works equally well. (The advantage of CA is that the glue block can easily be removed by giving a chisel a sharp rap into the joint. A glue block attached with hot melt glue is not quite as easily removed.)

If you use this method, don't cut into the glue block when shaping the outside of the bowl. You can easily remove the thin band of glue that's holding everything together.

2 - Rubbing alcohol will release the bond of most hot melt glues. This won't help much in removing the glue block! The joint between the bowl and the glue block should be tight, which will prevent the alcohol from reaching the glue to release its bond. However, once the glue block has been removed, alcohol can be used to remove any residue from the glue block and the bottom of the bowl. The glue should peel off easily once in contact with the alcohol.

HTH

David

[Bill Bukovec]

I use hot melt glue and it works well for me. I rough turn my blanks then let them dry. Once dry, I chuck the bottom and true the rim flat and round. I hot glue the rim to a piece of plywood then turn the bottom to final shape, with a dovetailed recess on the bottom. To get the bowl off the plywood, I spray alcohol around the rim to soften the glue.

[Dwayne Watt]

If you don't trust standard hot melt glue, SureBonder sells glue sticks specifically for wood. I have used both standard and wood glue sticks with equal success on waste block glue ups. That said, i also use a high temp gun from SureBonder. Denatured alcohol will release either glue from wood within a couple seconds of application.

[Brice Rogers]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned using a tail stock with hot melt, or just touching up the foot (mortise or tenon) while holding with hot melt.

Hot melt is not going to allow you to do aggressive stock removal, "hogging out" or roughing.

But if you have a tailstock in place, and take light cuts, hot melt can work fine. That also goes for using Tite-bond, CA, etc.