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Homemade Precise Glue Pot

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:01 am
by Diane Kauffmds
I needed to make a glue pot for hide glue since I'm unwilling to pay more than $100 for one. I found an online article that recommended the Rival Hot Pot Express. I found one on Amazon, but the price tag seemed awfully hefty, so I went to Ebay.

Beware if you try to find a Rival Express; they stopped making them in the USA, and are now being outsourced. I found this model, which you can see has a gray-tan band around the bottom, and is the same model that they used in the article. It is made in the USA. The newer ones have a scale from low-high. This one has a scale from warm-boil.

The outsourced pot probably work just as well for hide glue, but I know that hide glue works best within a pretty tight temperature range. The USA made Rival Hot Pot Express is very accurate. At any rate, almost any of the USA made hot pots are cheaper on Ebay, than the new model on Amazon. You can find all models, new and used, on Ebay.

I've been testing the temperature of water inside of the canning jar, filled at or below the waterline on the ball jar. On warm, the coolest has been 138.6 and the warmest 142.0. That gives me a little leeway to increase the heat. Yesterday, I simply tested the pot with water, checking it every 15 minutes or so. I kept it on for a good 3 hours and I saw the same temperatures on warm. It heats very fast.

I used an 8 ounce ball canning jar. When the pot is at capacity at 32 ounces, water covers half of the jar. The jar is suspended from the top where I cut the handle off of the lid. I kept a little lip, only filing the inside of the resulting hole lightly, until I got the jar to rest at the threads.

This gives me the advantage of taking the jar out and putting a lid on it to store in the fridge or freezer.
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Re: Homemade Precise Glue Pot

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 12:01 pm
by ruby@magpage.com
Diane

My daughter uses hide glue at her repair shop on a daily basis (brooklynlutherie.com). This is what she does.

She mixes up a batch and puts into little plastic containers with lids - about the size of the ketchup cups at fast food stores. She puts them in the freezer.

When she needs some hide glue (usually for re-gluing a bridge or neck reset) she fires up her "leg wax melting pot" that she paid $10 for new, and floats one or a couple of these frozen containers in it. She might use left overs a second day, but usually just tosses what is unused.

Almost makes we want to try it

Ed

Re: Homemade Precise Glue Pot

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 2:14 pm
by Kevin Sjostrand
Perfect solution Diane, I'm not convinced yet to try hide glue, but if I ever do, I will use something like this. I know some have used the little crockpots...wait, is that what this is??

Re: Homemade Precise Glue Pot

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 8:14 pm
by JLT
I've got one of those Rival pots, and that's what I've used. The hide glue itself goes into a baby food jar, which goes into the refrigerator when I'm not using the glue.

Frank Ford has a nifty way of using hide glue without a pot at all (once you get beyond the "cooking" stage. It's at:

http://frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Tec ... glue1.html

Re: Homemade Precise Glue Pot

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 11:13 pm
by MaineGeezer
I've got a small crock pot that has two states: on when it's plugged in and off when it's not. I'm the thermostat. :)

This setup ought to be glorious -- automatically holding the temperature to within a degree or two is excellent.

Re: Homemade Precise Glue Pot

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 1:32 pm
by Diane Kauffmds
I ran the pot for 3 days in a row, for 8 hours per day (which should be sufficient testing). It held the temp from 143.7 to 146.1 degrees. That should be optimal.

Re: Homemade Precise Glue Pot

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:54 pm
by tippie53
As the FOnz would say Perfecto Mundooooo