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Is there an alternative solution to heating hide glue consistently without the $100 warmer from Woodcraft (or similar)?

-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

There's a wealth of info on the OLF resources page:

Sylvan Wells glue pot

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Rival hot pot. $9 wallmart.

What Paul said, same one I use. Target also has them for less than $20. Make sure you keep half the pot full of water, it doesn't keep constant temp's if you only put a little water. J. I can show you next Thurs during class.
Tracy

Rival here $3 at a flea market. There is a new seller on ebay has a nice looking metal one for just a few bucks. Has a nice looking dial and a pilot light. Search under hide glue pot.

I know a lot of you have suggested this... but I struggle with mine.

If I set the temp guage to max out at 145 in its cooling cycles it reaches about 100 or so before it kicks on again.

If I try to make the low end a little hotter it ends up being 160 - 165 on the "hot side"

How do you guys work around these temp swings?

I have thought about adding some heat sinks to the water, but never really tried it. I am curious as to what you do.

Brock Poling38740.6636342593

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

At the Brune shop they use a $10-15 baby bottle warmer to keep the glue at 145. I bought one but haven't made the jump to hide glue just yet.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

I use a broken Mr. Coffee unit. Broken in the sense that the upper heating element is burned out but the lower pot heating element works fine. It has its own automatic shutoff after being on an hour. It also has the benefit of heating water to 145* and stays quite constant.

Check the dumpsters for discarded Mr. Coffee units!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

[QUOTE=letseatpaste] At the Brune shop they use a $10-15 baby bottle warmer to keep the glue at 145. I bought one but haven't made the jump to hide glue just yet.[/QUOTE]

haha! Thanks Jon! Yeah, we use $15 baby bottle warmers and a thermometor to dial in the correct temperature. They work wonders, won't over cook the glue, and hold a very consistant temperature. I've never noticed more than 3 degrees of variation between cycles. It also heats the glue quite rapidly, so there is virtually no waiting period for the glue to warm. If I decide to glue, I turn on my pot, gather clamps and cauls, and depending on how much glue is in the pot, generally it's pretty close to ready once I've gotten my glue rag moistened and a paper towel handy.

The absolute best part is that they're cheap and last for many years, being on pretty much 6 days a week, 14 hours a day. I believe that my father has only burnt out one after 5 years of use (that was accidentally leaving it on multiple times overnight without water) and many on/off cycles.

Baby Monitors, Baby bottle Warmers, Babies.... what's happening to this forum?   



$18 at Amazon.com Rod, this is for you. When son outgrows it, he has his first luthier appliance. Dickey38740.9253009259

Nice one. Right now we don't need one of those yet.

I'll have to start a collection of tools for him. Right now, I think he could use a wide belt thickness sander like Tim McKnight has. Can't promis him that it won't be used we he's ready to use it though.Rod True38740.9446064815

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Read the description on that one from Amazon. Says it 'recycles', and you have to wait 10 minutes to warm up another bottle. What's needed is something that maintains a constant temp like the "Hold-Heet" pots. In my zeal, I bought a 2 qt. size which is much too large for my modest needs. But I just fill it with water and put my HG in plastic bottles or baby food jars. The pot keeps the H2O at a constant 145 deg, and I just float the bottles and/or jars until needed.

CrowDuck

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Chris Nielsen
Soquel, CA.

I use a Presto Fry-Daddy. It normally heats to about 300? but I removed the bottom, located the thermostat, drilled a hole in the bottom and adjusted it(unplugged) a little at a time, until I got the temp where I wanted.
It stays between 144?& 147?.

Yeah, I saw that 10 minute cycle thingy. Just wanted a pic. Brune recommends them, so there are probably some out there that just heat and hold. The one on Ebay right now with dial and pilot light, is probably a good one and cheap. It is metal with a handle, but no pour spout, so it even looks more like a glue pot. Sylvan was nice enough to share with us his method with no water at all, just a small bulb with insulation in a coffee can. Pretty cool. My first was an old mr. coffee pot where the perc part quit, but the heat plate was still good. Just suspended the glue bottle in the coffee carafe.

I used a rival pot for years before it burn't out. The next 2 rival's I returned because they wouldn'y hold temp (one wouldn'y go below 160) The last rival I bought is working but I have to let it warm for 20 min to even out the heat. It goes straight up to 170 and then slowly evens out at around 150 which heats my glue to 145.

What is the wattage on these Rival's? I was thinking about adding a dimmer to them to allow dialing in the perfect temp. Worth a try but the rating has to match.

I checked Wal-Mart over lunch. All they had was the 2 QT with only an "ON" setting. Is this the one ya'll are talking about?

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

And the only baby bottle warmer I can find is the one above with cycles. No constant warm setting.
Tracy, I'd be glad to talk to you about it thurs, too.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Thanks for the link, laurent.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Now I see which one to look for. I was in the crock pot section and couldn't come up with anything. I'll keep an eye out for the hot pot. Thanks for the info.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

I've been using a small coffee cup warmer for years. It eats about 7W, stays on (doesn't cycle), and keeps the glue 'just right'. I make the glue in baby food jars, and use a sort of 'double boiler' with an enemaled coffee mug on the warmer. I don't even want to know how long I've had this one: I do remember burning one out once. Find them at flea markets for about $2.

I looked at one at Hobby Lobby, primarily to heat candles, but I didn't think it would get hot enough.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

I bought one of those coffee cup warmers, but it wouldn't go over 120F with only 1/2 cup of water on it.

Maybe it was broken.

Anyway after I disasembled it in an attempt to make it go higher it's deffinatley broken!   

Funny how luthiery work makes us want to know how EVERYTHING we use works and how we can make it better

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

I now have a fancy one that was given to me by someone who picked it up when a hospital lab was throwing out a lot of equipment (why do hospitals always throw away so much perfectly fine equipment?). I can dial my temp exactly on a digital scale and it stays that way. It has a tray where the water goes, and I just float my glue bottle (with stainless steel nut stabilizers inside, thanks for the tip Mario) in there. Before that I used a semi broken coffee percolator that kept the temp OK, but this one is much more elegant. And it was free!

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