Replies

1. 
   godelescher | Dec 15, 2020 04:47pm | #1

   Is there a risk that moisture will loosen the hide glue? Yes. In fact, that's the point of hide glue. It releases with moisture. Will moisture wreck MDF? Yes. MDF is basically dense cardboard.

   I'm not trying to belittle you. I'm saying this for all the other people who think hide glue is something magical or traditional or "authentic". Hide glue has only one purpose: It is releasable. It gets used on violins and other instruments because they need to be taken apart from time to time. There is no other reason to use hide glue and it should be avoided in virtually all other applications.

   Hide glue is NOT suitable for furniture, boxes, veneering, or anything else that is built to stay built.

   As for MDF, it's one and only redeeming quality is that it's flat. Moisture kills it. It isn't strong. It doesn't machine well. It's dulls blades. It's cardboard. There is NO situation in which MDF is the best material. It is only the cheapest or the easiest.

1. 
   lat_axe | Dec 15, 2020 04:59pm | #2

   GE,

   You opine: "Hide glue is NOT suitable for furniture, boxes, veneering, or anything else that is built to stay built".

   So .... all them C17th - C20th pieces still in one piece were glued up with Titebond, eh? The British and The French had TB I all that time but wouldn't let you Yanks have it so you had to reinvent it just a few years ago.

   Or summick.

   There are various reasons for using hide glue on much else besides violins. Perhaps you could go a-surfing-oh and find them out? You don't have to surf far. There's quite a bit of information here on the FWW site.

   Mind, you may have to remove them blinkers. :-)

   Lataxe

1. 
   godelescher | Dec 15, 2020 08:41pm | #7

   Troll

2. 
   john_c2 | Dec 15, 2020 05:10pm | #3

   Oh, I gotta strongly disagree there. Hide glue is fantastic for a great many furniture making tasks. Far better than modern alternatives.

   But certainly there are better alternatives for some tasks.

2. 
   _mj_ | Dec 15, 2020 05:11pm | #4

   I use liquid hide glue all the time when assembling dovetails...it's slippery and makes the process easier.

   I think MDF is the best material for forms when making bent laminations.

3. 
   john_c2 | Dec 15, 2020 05:13pm | #5

   I would not use hide glue for veneered with a vacuum bag. Modern technique, modern glue.

   I would use hot hide glue, not liquid hide, for hammer veneering, certainly. In hammer veneered you actually slather hide glue on the surface to lubricate the veneer hammer. Take a look at some videos of hammer veneering, and see if your excess surface glue looks like theirs.

4. 
   user-3395150 | Dec 15, 2020 06:35pm | #6

   I agree with John_C2 that hide glue is an excellent choice for a variety of applications.

   To answer your question, you should be able to use a cabinet scraper to take off the excess glue from the surface. One of the great things about hide glue is that it won't affect your final finish so you should be fine.

5. 
   _mj_ | Dec 15, 2020 09:00pm | #8

   Alrighty then. Good talk..... and I have the screenshots. Not nice.

1. 
   john_c2 | Dec 16, 2020 02:58am | #9

   ??

6. 
   DRBWWing | Dec 16, 2020 10:24am | #10

   Yes you can soften excess glue on the surface with warm water and not harm anything. Dried globs can be carefully chipped off with a chisel, the residue scraped or sanded.

   I totally agree with John and Lataxe. Hot hide glue is an excellent way to veneer small to medium sized pieces. Although not ideal, I've used it over MDF with no problems. There's obviously different camps, Patrick Stewart doesn't see much of a need for any glue but hide glue. Others would quit ww'ing if they had to use it.

   To the OP - TMK OBG is not supposed to be used in a vacuum press, and I think this is stated somewhere in the literature. It has to be clamped, it cannot be hammered like hot hide glue b/c of the long open time.

7. 
   rnmerchant | Dec 16, 2020 12:23pm | #11

   Thanks to everyone for the help. Thanks to "godelescher" for the rather passionate start to the discussion... and don't worry I don't feel belittled. I'm a rank amateur and every perspective helps. I find for my rank amateur projects that MDF does seem to let me do things - but I did do a bit on plywood too! (Looking for a good stable substrate and I don't have the equipment to make real wood that easy to work with). And I'm from BC where engineered wood is our forte - and MDF uses up product that might otherwise be wasted! I'm scraping and sanding - using a little moisture to help the scraping but I don't think enough to loosen the bond. Thanks!