Homemade Precise Glue Pot
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:01 am
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.
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.