Official Luthiers Forum!

I recall reading a tip that I thought was pretty smart, in a recent thread. I'm sorry I can't remember who, offhand, but the tip was to make up the glue in a container, then spoon out what you would need from the refrigerated glue, and just heat that quantity in a small cup or bottle.  That way you don't have to keep heating all the glue over and over.  I take no credit for this idea.

Great tutorial again Hesh!  Will this soon be a movie?

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks Dude!!!!
I haven't made the switch yet but I should

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Hesh,

Good stuff.

The one thing I will add is that the 145 degree temperature is one you don't want to go above. You can work and use hhg below this temperature - below the 140 degree you mention. We can become a little too "clinical" - in the old days in the workshops they didn't have digital thermometers (neither did the Ancient Egyptians). Also depending on what you want to do you may want mixes a bit thiscker than the 1.8:1 - Mario when he was here used to say that he liked his HHG to have the consistency of Titebond. I think the secret of working with hhg is not to be afraid of it but learn to go with "the flow". If at all in doubt the joints can easily be dis-assambled, cleaned up and you can do it again.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Thanks Hesh!

I've had several questions about Hide glue that you've clearly answered.

So you all are just using "rival hot pots" to heat the water for the glue? This whole time I thought I needed to purchase the glue pot for around $100 which has been holding me back from trying hide glue.

Very much appreciated Tutorial Hesh.

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

Great tutorial Bud! Thanks for the bit about the distilled water, I've never seen that before. I'll have to try it!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Here's my HHG set-up...I agree with Dave that we luthier types can be too critical so I went back to my airline pilot roots and simplified....note the comfortable seating area....

              

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

A point of clarification on the distilled water. DW is intended to use in place of mineral laden tap water. DW is pure water and only water and will make your mixes consistent and repeatable all over the world.

Here's what I do to minimize mold growth...I boil the containers for about 5 minutes before pouring in the freshly mixed HHG. This way, any spores will be killed off and the start of mold growth can be delayed significantly.

Also, I store filled bottles in the freezer indefinitely (9 months data). After using an opened bottle, I store it in the fridge for no more than 2 months.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

EDIT

Todd...I like your rig for both thick and thin HHG!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Here's my rig. The thick pot works great to keep a constant temp. I keep the small cups in the freezer until needed and keep them in the fridge between heats.

Kirt

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Horton, MI

Hesh--

Thanks for the very informative tutorial and thank you to all who have made this a must read thread. I've been 'him-hawing' around for a while now, thinking about making the leap into the HHG world and this thread is my inspiration. Gonna do it and order some HHG tonight.

Thanks again all!

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

GREAT tutorial !

I too have been afraid of using HHG because of the expense and trouble of dealing with it. Looks like once you know the tricks it is easy to deal with. I'll give it a try!

THANKS!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Hesh,
great tutorial, I can forsee a time when we have tutorial section here at the OLF - a centralized place where any particular luthierie operation is easy to find, this would be much better than having to sift through the archives... things can be surprisingly difficult to find at times! Im surprised that more of the luthier sites dont have this set up seeing as so many helpful luthiers are posting phot and video tutorials these days... Like our buddy Hesh here
Thanks again.
Cheers
Charliewood

Hesh,

 

Thanks for the info.  Do you mind if I copy off and keep in my notebook ?

Hesh, great tutorial. Very timely for me... I had been considering HHG for my next build. Question for all you HHG users, do you get your glue from the usual suspects, LMI, StewMac, etc? Reason I ask is while browsing the Lee Valley site, I noticed that they carry HHG too, although the gram strength is rated at 260. Will this cause the glue to set up too quickly to be useful for our purposes? Does it have any applications for us? I order stuff from LV occasionally, so I was curious about their HHG.

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Jim Womack

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. "
Will Rogers

From what I have read, the 192 gram strength is better for instrument building.  If you need greater strength than that, you can get gelatin  at the grocery store - it has a strength in excess of 300 g.  

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

On my (very similar) hot pot, I took the base apart and found a little adjustable electronic trim pot (read rheaostat)

I just fiddled with it until I had a comfortable "headroom". So, when I turned the main heat control almost all the way up, it maxed out way below the boiling point. The allows more accurate dialing in of temp.

Hesh, you are a wizard at making this look simple. Keep them coming and thank you!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

[QUOTE=charliewood] Hesh,
great tutorial, I can forsee a time when we have tutorial section here at the OLF - a centralized place where any particular luthierie operation is easy to find, this would be much better than having to sift through the archives... things can be surprisingly difficult to find at times! Im surprised that more of the luthier sites dont have this set up seeing as so many helpful luthiers are posting phot and video tutorials these days... Like our buddy Hesh here
Thanks again.
Cheers
Charliewood[/QUOTE]


That sounds like a good idea...

And, I'll tell you what.    If you (or anyone) wants to come up with this list we will more than happily post a page of them similar to what we do in the jigs and tools area.

But honestly, we have so much stuff on our plate with HGF coming up, the new software going in, work, kids, and other stuff I don't see this project getting off the ground without some help from you guys. If you do the research, we will make the page.

Why don't you start a thread and have everyone find their favorite tutorial to post (please don't PM me or Lance, it is hard to keep track of these) and after we seem to find all of them we will make a page.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

[QUOTE=JimW] Hesh, great tutorial. Very timely for me... I had been considering HHG for my next build. Question for all you HHG users, do you get your glue from the usual suspects, LMI, StewMac, etc? Reason I ask is while browsing the Lee Valley site, I noticed that they carry HHG too, although the gram strength is rated at 260. Will this cause the glue to set up too quickly to be useful for our purposes? Does it have any applications for us? I order stuff from LV occasionally, so I was curious about their HHG.
[/QUOTE]

All hide glue comes from the same factory. IIRC there is only one place in North America that makes this stuff any more. I am not sure about the rest of the world.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Great tutorial bro! A little adendum, if I may... I do believe another reason to use SS bolts is that they'll act as little 'heat sinks' and keep the temperature elevated a bit longer once the bottle is out of the bath...

Jim, I've used the Lee Valley glue on my last two guitars and it works just the same as the 192 high clarity HHG I used before... Great stuff, this HHG...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Thanks Alain, good to know.

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Jim Womack

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. "
Will Rogers