Thread: hot glue

Mat, good question I have in the past worked allot with hot melt glues in the packaging industry and have yet to use it in turning. My only reservation with using it is that I dont know what type is on offer. I say this because there are many different types out there each with it particular aspect or strength.

Some swear by it, I am not wholly confident given the way I turn that, thats the way for me to go. So I rely on other methods and when it comes to blocks etc I glue them on with PVA . I do this from time to time with scraps and do several blanks at once, other wise the usual methods chucks, steb centres, screw chucks and the like.

atm screw the blank to the face plate and cut a tennon at the bottom of the peice but would love to try something else to get a bit more bowl out of my wood. ive heard about pvc glue might try that and see how it goes

I have been using hot glue on smaller pieces the largest being 6"x4" piece of camphour all with no problems . I didnt know there were different types of hot glues so I must have lucked out with the one I'm using

Look up turners like Terry Scott from NZ or Vaughan Richmond WA on Google. They use hot melt glue a lot. One tip if you use hot melt always glue wood to wood not wood to a metal face plate, be carefull in how far you reduce the surface area of the hot melt glue bond surface & doing anything that may generate heat near the glued surfaces. Can have some interesting moments when the glue softens or shears. I have been trialing the Bosch hot melt glue, seems OK. I use it for bonding small (75mm) laminated bowl blanks to waste block spiggots which are then held in a chuck. May seem a strange process but the laminated blanks have a lot of time invested in them so you don’t waste them.

Tecbond Glue Sticks | Glue for Glue Guns | GlueGunsDirect.com

There was a guy at the WWW show in Melb.that used super glue seemed to work ok,nothing came loose while i was there.

I do a bit of laminating of 300mm plus diameter bowls and use aquadhere. I do not use paper in the joint as I have had too many fail. I screw a waste block to the face plate and hollow it out to leave a 10 - 12mm wide rim. Something like a small bowl. This rim is made the same outside diameter as of the base of the bowl and the two are glued together using the lathe as a press. I separate them with a hand saw and finish off the bowl bottom by hand.
Jim

Another issue with hot melt is keeping the glue hot enough for a good bond. I use the gun to spread the glue then an electric heat gun (paint stripper type) to remelt the glue before bonding together. Brendan Stemp uses hot melt on very large surfaces as does Terry Scott.

Some tips using hot melt glue that Mr Wraight gave me:

The timber must be warm. A Melbourne thing in winter.

If doing a full circle of glue, leave an air gap for the air to escape and the glue to compress.

I use it occasionally for some jobs.

thanks all ill take it ll on board

I use it frequently to glue tennons on . Iv'e got one on the lathe at the moment about 260mm diam. The only failure Iv'e had, is when I sanded the base of the bowl blank before I glued the tennon on . Maybe the glue needs a bit of a key.I warm up the blank and tennon in a microwave oven before glueing which gives a bit more working time for assembly and I usually put the finished bowl back in the microwave to remove the tennon .
Having said this, you have to be sensible about it. A couple of days ago, I was coreing out a very hard coolabah blank .In this case I glued on a 100mm tennon about 25mm thick using Titebond 3 . I managed to snap the tennon twice but I had just enough wood left to cut a new tennon to remount and got there on the third attempt . I rather doubt that hotmelt would have held on.
Ted

The timber must be warm. A Melbourne thing in winter.
If doing a full circle of glue, leave an air gap for the air to escape and the glue to compress.

further to that do not spread it out like PVA, your better off with a large blob in the centre. Then apply the block squashing the glue outwards to the edges it will tend set immediately as the glue is rapidly thinned out under pressure. It sounds challenging, but not at all as large the blob it will retain almost all of its heat until the flattening.This will also help with the air expulsion, although this is better suited to smaller dia, say a max of 75mm.


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I have used both hot melt glue and double sided tape for small pieces you just need to remember not to get to heavy handed with the cut.
Regards Rod.

yeah i might have to get someone to show me one day im just a bit worried that it will fly off the lathe had that happen once when i first started

The yellow hotmelt glue loves Huon Pine.

It usually delaminates the Huon Pine if you try to remove it cold.

It must be a marriage made in heaven, ment to last forever.

Cheers

Tim