Replies

1. 
   MichaelLomax | Jul 23, 2002 06:27am | #1

   I can't say that I have much experience with hide glue.  Have some around that I keep intending to experiment with but I did read somewhere that the proper temp is about that of a hot plate on a coffee pot.

   I went to the local thrift store and bought a pot for $5.  Fill the pot with water and let it perc into the carafe. Then set a glass jar in the carafe filled with your hide glue.  You might need something to stabilize the jar.

   This seemed to work great.  If someday I decide hide glue is for me a comericially made pot might be in my future.  Right now, the $5 coffee pot is my tool of choice.

   Good luck!

   lomax 

2. 
   WilliamHF | Jul 23, 2002 03:04pm | #2

   Here's infol. re hot hide glue for those who use small quantities and for those who will need big quantities.

   The degree of heat you want in hide glue is 140-145 F. If you heat it too much hotter, the glue gets "cooked" and loses its adhesive qualities.

   For violin making, large quantities are never needed. We put the small amount needed for a given glueing session into a small glass container, such as a shot glass.

   Remember that you first want to add water to your granular hide glue and let it set for 15 minutes-30 minutes. The exact time does't seem to make much difference.. You can set it in the refrigerator overnight before heating it up if you want to.

   Stir it a little with your stick. It won't be liquid yet, just a sticky granular mass. For starters, until you become more familiar with how hide glue behaves, add twice the volume of water to the volume of hide glue granules you have chosen to make up into the liquid form.

   (After the glue has been liquified, you'll decide whether to to add more water by how viscous the hot hide glue is. The end point is approximated by dipping your brush or a thin stick in the glue, withdrawing it until it's about 3" above the top level of the liquified glue and watching the glue drip off the brush into the container below. If it doesn't drip a little it's either not hot enough or too viscous. ISt ought to start dripping in about 3 seconds from the time you lifted the brush/stick out of the glue. Hide glue is pretty "forgiving" so don't worry much about any of this. Use it on test strips and you'll soon get the feel for it.)

   Set some kind of kitchen pot on your hot plate or one of the coils of your regular electric stove. Bring the temperature of the water up to where when you stick your finger in it you'd say, "That's hot now."  But not hot enough to make you jerk your finger out reflexly.

   Set the little glass container with its sticky granular mass in the hot water so that the water level of the kitchen pot is just above the level of the granular mass.

   After a couple minutes stir the glue with your stick. You'll see the granules begin to melt into the water. Stir it good.

   At the end of the day, the remaining hide glue can be put in the refrigerator and used again tomorrow. After a couple days, throw it out. (Many workers keep it for several days. In shops where the glue pot runs pretty much all day long, just keep adding fresh granules and water and you can use the pot as is for days on end without cleaning out the pot.)

   If you need big quantities of liquid hide glue you'll be better off to buy the thermostatically controlled electric pot for just under $100.

   You can use your microwave to speed up the process. Example: Use a Gerber baby food jar about 1/8th full of glue set in a cereal bowl full of water, pop this in the microwave (500 watt) and heat for 25 seconds. This results in water and glue of about 130 to 140 degrees really fast.   I haven't done this in several years (not because it isn't a perfectly good method for heating the glue). Try ten seconds as your first shot for small quantities of the sticky glue mass resulting from soaking for 15-30 minutes. If not enough add 5 seconds at a shot until you get the liquid you want. Remember how long it took for that quantity and next time it'll be a snap.

   Many men who use only small quantities of hide glue in their work have used baby bottle warmers to heat the glue. Careful: The water thus heated can get too hot with some warmers. Other types of warming plates used to keep hot dishes warm may work well too.

   One can wire a potentiometer into the circuit supply power to the "warmer" and adjust the power for the right temperature. A paper on this was published in the So. Calif. Association of Violin Makers Bulletin about 12 years ago by Ralph Agens.

   You can make up large quantities of hot hide glue and pour it into small glass containers and freeze it in your kitchen freezer. Later, for months (presuming that your freezer keeps the glue frozen) you can take out a glass container full of frozen hide glue and heat it up again. Good as new.

   You can lengthen the working time of hot hide glue by adding urea.

   You can read all about Hide Glue in Fine Woodworking magazine.  No. 57, Mar/April 1986, page 66 and forward.

   FWIW

   William

   I make something, sometimes twice, each year.
3. 
   ChasStanford | Jul 24, 2002 12:13am | #3

   Two Ds - Luddites, and capitalized too.