To All,
I recently finished cutting the dovetails for a 4 drawer case (36″W x 28″T x 22″D) I am working on. I would like to glue it together using hot hide glue. The case has a solid bottom and the top has 2 stringers. In practicing with some small glueups I feel the glue might set up to fast to get the case together. Is there any tips in glueing this together that anybody could offer. Thanks!
Replies
Get some Old Brown Glue from Patrick Edwards or the hide glue product from Franklin.
They have urea added to slow the time to the gel set. Otherwise, they are the regular stuff. You can and should warm them to a good working consistency. I like the Patrick Edwards product better for some reason.
You'd better be quick if you use regular hot hide glue to do a carcase.
An assistant is very usefull.
You don't want to do this glue up in a 65° shop either, so crank up the heat. Heating the drawer parts under an electric blanket has been done. Heating has the potential to mess with moisture content if it is used to do much more than warm the surfaces. I've even known a fellow who warmed the wood around the joint with a propane torch, though that isn't something I would recommend.
Also remember that dovetails are so strong mechanically that getting a perfect glue spread on every single surface isn't necessary. No time to be fiddling. Perfection is the enemy of the good.
If you run into a problem then play a heat gun along the joint.The hide glue will soften . As others said, use hide glue sparingly and quickly on dovetails. I haven't used hide glue with urea but will try it next time I have a complicated glueup.
mike
Henry,
Like some others above have said, adding urea is the way to go. I put the urea in the mixing water and let it dissolve, and then add it to the glue flakes; this ensures even distribution of the urea. I've read where you can put up to 30% urea in the mixture, but I never even come close to that ratio; instead I stay at about 5-10%.
My shop is pretty cold in the winter, but that has not presented too many problems. When it is cold, I just do the glue up in section; using your piece as an example, I would glue one side at a time to the bottom. This requires some careful clamping to keep things relatively square, until the top is glued in, but it reduces the number of joints that have to be dealt with at a time. I'd clamp the sides in at the beginning of the day and then do the top near the end of the day, letting the entire case in the clamps over night.
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
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