A little help from the hide glue experts:

I've mixed up a couple of batches and feel that maybe my mix is two
thin. here is what I've done:

pre soaked a quantitiy of glue crystals for 3-4 hours with an excess
of water. glue absorbed a lot of the water but still had an excess of
free water.

Drained off the excess free water simply by placing a knife against
the jar top and letting the excess water drain out. did not try to
force any of the rest of the water out. mixture looked like soggy
tapioca pudding.

placed in a rigged double boiler. babyfood jar suspended in a small
pot on a hot plate with a candy thermometer in the water. heated to
approxiamtely 160 degrees F for 30 minutes then let the temp drop back
to about 140.

when I dip a stir stick into the hot glue and lift it out it comes off
in drips, kind of the viscosity of a light oil. If i rub some between
my fingers it feels like cooking oil or light machine oil. It is
definitely not thick like a heavy syrup. Is this right? or am I doing
something wrong?

Frank

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 13:42:35 -0600, Frank Boettcher
wrote:

when I dip a stir stick into the hot glue and lift it out it comes off
in drips, kind of the viscosity of a light oil. If i rub some between
my fingers it feels like cooking oil or light machine oil. It is
definitely not thick like a heavy syrup. Is this right?

It's right for something - maybe not what you're doing. I'd aim for
"golden syrup" consistency for general use.

Get less water in there. Just soak it for less time. Otherwise turn up
the heat on your hotplate and let it reduce for a while, making sure you
stir the skin in every few minutes. I love my chem lab hotplate for
this - easy adjustment between "Start up", "Store it" and "Make it
thicker".

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:40:06 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 13:42:35 -0600, Frank Boettcher
wrote:

when I dip a stir stick into the hot glue and lift it out it comes off
in drips, kind of the viscosity of a light oil. If i rub some between
my fingers it feels like cooking oil or light machine oil. It is
definitely not thick like a heavy syrup. Is this right?

It's right for something - maybe not what you're doing. I'd aim for
"golden syrup" consistency for general use.

Get less water in there. Just soak it for less time. Otherwise turn up
the heat on your hotplate and let it reduce for a while, making sure you
stir the skin in every few minutes. I love my chem lab hotplate for
this - easy adjustment between "Start up", "Store it" and "Make it
thicker".


Thanks, I think I used one of your posts to get started with this.

I'm doing repairs to a an upright or double bass. I used the thin
batch to repair an open seam between the back and the side skirt and
the fact that it was thin was good because I could force it in the
open crack and get it fully wetted out. However, I have a structural
repair (neck to body) to do tommorrow and I think I would like a
thicker glue for that. I'll try to get more water out or heat it for
longer to thicken it up.

My little hot plate rig ($8 at big lots) is adjustable and I scratched
marks to indicate 140, 160, 175 degrees F with my makeshift double
boiler.

Frank