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Thanks for all the info. I tracked down a very similar item at Walgreens for $9.99
Should work great.

-j.j.Brown38742.6446296296

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So Graham: how hot does it have to get?

To tell the truth, I don't know what temperature my coffee cup warmer hits. It's warm enough to melt the glue, and keep it liquid for a while after I put it down, and not so hot that the glue breaks down too fast, so that's all I worry about.

The 140 degree F number that is often bandied about is, in my understanding, a _maximum_ temperature. Above that the proteins in the glue start to denature much more quickly, and it turns dark and thick and loses strength. If you can work with it at 120 then the glue will last a lot longer. Too cool and the things that eat it will start to flourish, but that will probably not be a problem for most of us if we mix in small batches and only heat it up when we use it.

[QUOTE=j.Brown] Thanks for all the info. I tracked down a very similar item at Walgreens for $9.99
Should work great.

-j.[/QUOTE]

That's the one I got.I've had it for a couple of years now and it works fine.

[quote]So Graham: how hot does it have to get?

To tell the truth, I don't know what temperature my coffee cup warmer hits. It's warm enough to melt the glue, and keep it liquid for a while after I put it down, and not so hot that the glue breaks down too fast, so that's all I worry about.
[/quote]

Wow. That's great.    I was under the impression that if your glue wasn't really close to 145f then you would have adhesion problems or something like that. I had just assumed this from eveything I'd read on the internet about it. I did put some glue in the 120f water and it seemed to melt fine, but everything I've read says 145f is the magic number.

I'll just use my coffee cup warmer then since it actually does still work even after I took it apart.

Thanks Alan!    Graham Steward38742.7181597222

Wow, y'all must have found a bad batch of Rivals <g> My old one started acting up, so I grabbed a new one off the shelf at the hardware store. Plugged it in, played with the adjustment a few times, and now it holds 145 all day, every day. Doesn't overshoot, nothing.

You DO have to keep these guys more than 2/3 full of water all the time, but that's no big deal. Anything less than 2/3 full, and the temperature starts to cycle.

Looking at what went wrong with the old one, it was just the contacts on the thermostat. Filed them clean, then starting working with it. We can adjust the sensitivity, I found, by bending the little bi-metal strip ever so slightly. My old one is now back up to par, and is now my spare. It's going on 5 years of daily use now...

Before that I used an old coffee maker, which held 140 all day, but it took too long to get up to temperature for my tastes.Mario38743.5046296296

   I got a Procto Silex hot pot from Home Depot yesterday. 20$ CAD. At minimum it holds around 140 very consistently...
   This was my first experience with Hide Glue (Very Big thank to Dave Bland...) and I think I'll never use anything else... Hide glue is amazing...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Where's the Glue Pooh! If my Rival gives out, I'm getting this one.

Your hillarious Bruce.

I guess you could call it your Pooh Pot.

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That is sweeeeeeeet Bruce, i might be related to that fellow too!