HHG

[Greg Steil]

No, not Hitchhikers Guide. I would like some suggestions as to heating things to glue with Hide Glue. What do you folks use? Hair dryer? Light bulbs? So far open flame and explosives have not worked. Hows about an ideal temp range? Same as glue? Thanks!

[Mario Proulx]

Hair driers work well, and have the added bonus of being right there and ready to use when you're done with the cleanup of the squeeze-out. Yes, I think it's wise to blow-dry the wood right away..

A heat gun works great for heating larger/longer surfaces, like a guitar's rim, so I have both a hair drier and heat gun handy.

As for temps, anything "warm" to the touch will do; do NOT try to get the wood to 145°F! HHG gels at around 95°F, so anything above that will allow unlimited open time, and anything near that will greatly extend open time. Grab a few pieces of scrap, say, some hardwood the size and thickness of a bridge, another the size and thick. of a bridgeplate, some spruce scraps roughly brace-size, etc...., and practice warming these and applying HHG, so see how much open time it gives you relative to how warm you got the pieces. Always keeping in mind how much open time you actually need....

In other words, as we always suggest here, "practice on scraps".

[Greg Steil]

thanks! I like that practice on scraps bit. Sounds like my workbench!

[John Hamlett]

I use a heat gun, it has a low and a high setting, I use low. For large glue-ups, like gluing tops or backs to rims, I usually also set up a heat lamp in a swing arm lamp at a "respectable distance" to keep things warm during the application of the glue and clamping. For really big, slow, or complicated situations, I've been known to heat the shop up to nearly 90 degrees. When the room is about 90 degrees, the heat lamp has been used and the heat lamp is shining on the work, I have more open time than with Titebond.

[Craig Tucker]

I use a cardboard box with a heating pad inside...

First I let the heating pad reach its temperature (L,M,H,Off), which I will set by feel, with the temperature switch, then I will put whatever part(s) I want to glue in the box for some ten or fifteen minutes, until it is (they are) warm to the touch, then I'll hide glue them together.

Tops, bottoms, necks, it doesn't matter much - if it is going on a fiddle, and the ambient temp. is too cold - it gets warmed a bit before assembly.

[Mario Proulx]

A hair drier or heat gun will do the same thing, in seconds....

[Chris Vallillo]

I've had mixed results with a heat gun, almost certainly my fault, but then I've got a serious heat gun and find it's extremely easy to over heat and damage finish (or old cellulose binding!). Better luck with a hair dryer since it's less hot to begin with but if it's a small area, I use a light bulb. Better control and I can take my time and get a good deep heat.

[Mario Proulx]

Chris, you -don't- need a "good, deep heat"! You're not disassembling the part, you're just gluing it. All you need to do is get the surface slightly warm to the touch.

In fact, we don't need to warm anything! Warming the surface buys us a bit of open time with the glue, but if and when we're organized enough, or it's a small part, there's no need to warm the parts, even. Definitely no need for a "good, deep heat".

And why were you warming an already finished surface, or binding?

[Chris Vallillo]

Don't take me too literally here, I'm not talking about baking the instrument! And I may very well have been disassembling an instrument when I had issues with Nitrocellulose binding, but in general, I try to warm things up enough to give me a longer assembly time if I'm using hide glue, particularly if I doing something more complicated like glueing in a splint.

I salute all of those that have the experience,speed and coordination to pull off hide glue fixes unwarmed!

[Thomas Wentzel]

I've settled into a combo of hair dryer and a heat lamp on an old mic stand. I work in my basement where it can be upper 60s year round. If I'm gluing, say, a bridge, I'll turn the lamp on the guitar at about 3' distance then heat the bridge with the dryer for a few minutes. The lamp warms the wood area, and the air around, so I have pretty good open time. But I always 'practice' dry clamping a few times before I glue. This set up has proven to be fast, simple and effective. Tom

[Arnt Rian]

Heat gun here too, it has a temp control which I turn on "low", so I suppose in reality its about as hot as a hair dryer. During winter, I keep one of those oil filled radiator heaters under the bench underneath my go-bar deck, so if most of the shop isn't warm, that small area is. There is a pretty big cut out in the bench, to lead the heat up. I just leave the parts to be glued there for some minutes prior to gluing, and I have all the time I need.