I used Franklin liquid hide glue to assemble one unit of my wall cabinet which I am building. I knew it would take a while to coat the multiple dovetails so I used this slow setting glue (“up to 30 minutes working time”). The temperature in my workshop was in the high 60’s. When I first used the glue its consistency seemed very much like contact cement. In about 20 minutes I had all the joints coated and I began to put the unit together and clamp it. The glue was right at the point where it had begun to harden and I had a very difficult time aligning the pieces as I clamped them. Should I have somehow warmed up the hide glue first, and would that have prolonged the set up time?
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Replies
Yes. Warming the glue would havee slowed it down. But once you get into heating it, you've kinda defeated the purpose of using the liquid hide glue. Might as well just get a pot and use dry glue.
Adam
When I need to use the liquid hide glue and it's a little stiff from the cold, I'll just soak the bottle in a pan of hot water for a few minutes. This makes it much easier to apply.
I can't work fast enough to keep hot hide glue from gelling up ahead of me when doing something like a chair glue up.
If I'm not using hide glue because that's what was originally there, I just use Titebond's White Glue that has a long closed time, too.
Edited 3/30/2006 12:33 pm ET by byhammerandhand
"I can't work fast enough to keep hot hide glue from gelling up ahead of me when doing something like a chair glue up."
Are you saying that even if I heat up the hide glue it will gel just as fast as if it were not heated? Sounds like the white glue would be easier to work with. Does the white glue have a longer gel time than the hide glue?
Hot hide glue will gel quickly as it cools, this is what makes a "rubbed joint."Liquid hide glue has a gel suppressant in it (which is why it remains liquid at room temperature). Urea or table salt will gel-suppress hot hide glue, but I don't know what's in the commercial version.I use the (liquid) hide glue when hide glue is there because it will reactivate itself. For all other cases I use plain old white glue ($1.58 at the big box stores "All Purpose White" http://www.titebond.com/IntroPageTB.ASP?UserType=1&ProdSel=ProductCategoryTB.asp?prodcat=1). They make slow set up ones at twice the price. ??? Checking the Titebond web site(http://www.titebond.com/download/pdf/ww/GlueGuideTB.pdf
), nearly all the glues have shear strength within 10% of each other. This tells me that preparation, fit, application and cleanliness make much more of a difference than choosing between any of the 10 pva, polyurethane, hide, or special resin glues.
Just when I'm gluing up a chair, I want things to be adjustable so I can remove racking when I have it all done. The yellow glues "grab" (AKA "strong initial tack") too fast for me.
Edited 3/31/2006 4:02 pm ET by byhammerandhand
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