Keeping the Hide Glue Warm at Wood’n Bits
Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I’m a fan of hide glue. I like the fact that it is stickier than PVA glues and thus the pieces I’m gluing don’t slide around while I’m clamping. More important, though, is that it can be debonded with heat and moisture, making repairs easier. It’s easy to fix glue up mistakes too, mistakes I never make, of course.
And while I use both liquid and hot hide glue, I find that hot hide glue is superior. Rather than reiterating all my thoughts on hide glue, here are two posts I’ve made on the subject:
Today, though, I want to talk about a new pot for heating my hide glue. If you follow the links you’ll see the pot I’ve been using. It’s a thermostatically-controlled tea kettle and I’ve used it as a double-boiler, keeping the actual glue in a container sitting in a water bath. This works well but suffers from the fact that it heats so quickly that it overshoots its temperature setting. I also, sometimes, get water slopping onto my bench but that’s cuz I’m like a whirling dervish when I’m doing a glue up.
I heard about this pot in a Twitter discussion and while I wish I could remember who recommended it, I can’t remember who gave up the name “La Grande Wax Warmer.“ It’s used to heat various torture devices sold under the auspices of removing body hair. Ya just gotta love any product that requires two languages to name it but I guess if you’re selling stuff to people who think sticking hot wax on themselves and then ripping it off is ok, this makes sense. There is also a smaller version called “La Petite Wax Warmer.” In fact, I ordered the small one. I paid the price of the small one. But they sent me the larger one. Go figure but I’m grateful for the error.
In spite of its true “raison d’etre”, this device has two attributes that I really like in my tools. It works very well and it was dirt cheap. The first thing I wanted to see was how long it would take to heat and, initially, I was disappointed.
It takes about 15 minutes to take cold water and heat it to hide glue temperature. I tested it with cold water because I often have hide glue in the fridge and so I figured the cold water would be a close enough mimic. My initial disappointment turned to joy, though, as the slower heating brings the contents to temperature and stops – the temperature control of this device is wonderful. With my old system the temp would heat to around 170F and then drop back to the 150-155F that I like. Then it would cool a bit more and the cycle would repeat. This device does lose a couple degrees when I remove the lid but not much and there is no over-heating. My preferred temp comes at a setting just about half of the max setting.
I don’t normally store my glue in the pot but I might start, at least for short periods as the lid on this pot can be locked in place and the seal is quite good. In operation you just set the lid on top of the container. I’m a happy camper and my shop is just a wee bit warmer.
Cheers — Larry
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I’m happy with my La Petite and I am glad you like your La Grande. Perhaps a workshop needs both to have maximum efficiency in hide glue usage!!
Hi Jeremy,
I bet you’re the guy who mentioned this great tool on Twitter. Thanks for that. I have mixed feelings about the larger one but I think I’ll prefer it. The one limitation I had with my old system was that I would sometimes run out of glue while doing a larger glue up. I can always use a smaller jar, placed inside the warmer if I only want to heat a small amount of glue.
Cheers — Larry