When I do a project such as a chest of drawers, I usually use half blind dovetails to attach the bottom to the sides. I'm attempting to learn more about hot hide glue and want to do a project using it. Note the word "hot" for the hide glue. I'm not looking to use liquid hide glue, I want to use hot hide glue like our ancestors did.
When you apply glue to half blind dovetails, it takes a long time. I apply glue to the insides of the sockets and to the sides of the tails - on both sides. The tap the bottom on to the sides, and clamp up and down, and across the bottom to pull everything tight. And, of course, the top has to be addressed in this glue up, also, which takes more time applying glue.
How do you do such a glue up with hot hide glue? The glue will cool by the time I get it applied to all the parts. I could apply the glue, let it cool, then come back with a heat gun and warm up each joint before tapping the joint together. But two issues:
1. After I warm up the joint, I can tap the tails into the sockets and they'll be held there as soon as the glue cools. But I like to clamp across the bottom to pull the sides in tight to the bottom so that the dovetails look "tight". While this doesn't matter much on the bottom of a chest, it will matter for visible dovetails so I want to figure out how to solve this problem.
2. Our ancestors didn't have heat guns. How did they address this issue?
Your advice and suggestions will be appreciated.
Mike