We’ve made almost 500 bottles of Piggly No Wiggly Glue and, thanks to Megan’s baking experience, we have refined the recipe to where the glue-making process creates less foam and the glue has a thinner consistency, which makes it easier to pour and brush out without adding water.
In his Good Eats episode on homemade chicken stock, Alton Brown says the foam in that process has something to do with protein coagulation. I don't know how thoroughly sea salt is cleaned when it's harvested but I'd guess there's residual protein from fish, etc.
Alternatively, sea salt has lots of minerals in it besides sodium chloride that could be culprits. The mineral makeup is region-specific which is why, for example, English salt tastes different from Italian.
Cooking up a batch of this tonight. I’ll give it a test with some scrap after reheating tomorrow night. Aiming to glue up some parts throughout Thanksgiving break, will be a fun test. Only difference, is I’m weighing out all the ingredients in metric, this exact recipe in grams, seems a perfect amount to start with for a stick chair glue-up. And using recycled Bonne Maman jars, we always save them, seems a great use. I’ll report back results soon~
Hey Megan/Chris, if you're doing large batches of these are you still stirring by hand? I'm wondering if you've considered using a magnetic stirrer and stir bar? It's a laboratory staple and would really reduce the elbow grease needed, unless that's your thing I suppose. You can get cheap used ones all over ebay.
Oh sure. You will find lots of stuff there in the public domain. And lots that is not (orphan works). Use the Wayback Machine to see websites that have been shut down. Fun stuff.
I'd as soon work without my dividers in the shop as in the kitchen without my little coffee scale. Yeah, in either case, you don't need it to do good work. But man once you get used to it, you itch to reach for it when you see instructions in inches and feet/teaspoons, tablespoons, ounces, and cups. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/6a205d67-c698-409e-a515-bcd4b58f440e
I made the mistake of trying to glueup my armbow with 315 gram strength hot hide glue last week... Set up too fast, but got everything apart and cleaned up to try another day. I went back and realized in the Stick Chair Book you deliberately said you use Liquid Hide Glue as opposed to Hot Hide Glue, for the longer open time.
All of that to confirm, this recipe is for home made Hot Hide Glue, not Liquid Hide Glue? Have you been using this with your chair assembling? Or is the open time just not long enough? Thanks, as always.
(I also realized after the fact, pre-warming the parts with a heat gun would have helped a lot, maybe next time)
Aside from mixing my own, is it possible to make your glue a little thicker? Might it entail simply warming it less? I've been doing a bunch of small glue ups, and thicker would be better.
The best way to make it thicker is to cook it. The water controls the viscosity. Add water to thin it. Cook it an hour or two with the top open to thicken it up.
You can then add water to thin it again over and over.
Big thanks for generously sharing this! I will try it out next year when I (hopefully) have more time for woodworking again. I managed to do quite a lot of woodworking during my first daughters toddler years, but there is simply no time right now with two of them...
On another note - would you point in the general direction of your supplier of the old type of bottles? I love the look and they would be perfect for condiments (and glue, I guess).
In his Good Eats episode on homemade chicken stock, Alton Brown says the foam in that process has something to do with protein coagulation. I don't know how thoroughly sea salt is cleaned when it's harvested but I'd guess there's residual protein from fish, etc.
Alternatively, sea salt has lots of minerals in it besides sodium chloride that could be culprits. The mineral makeup is region-specific which is why, for example, English salt tastes different from Italian.
Cooking up a batch of this tonight. I’ll give it a test with some scrap after reheating tomorrow night. Aiming to glue up some parts throughout Thanksgiving break, will be a fun test. Only difference, is I’m weighing out all the ingredients in metric, this exact recipe in grams, seems a perfect amount to start with for a stick chair glue-up. And using recycled Bonne Maman jars, we always save them, seems a great use. I’ll report back results soon~
Hey Megan/Chris, if you're doing large batches of these are you still stirring by hand? I'm wondering if you've considered using a magnetic stirrer and stir bar? It's a laboratory staple and would really reduce the elbow grease needed, unless that's your thing I suppose. You can get cheap used ones all over ebay.
Dude, we melted some pigs to make this glue. No magnetic stirrer would handle this muck.
Anyway, unlike shellac (for which we use a magnetic stirrer) it doesn't need much stirring past dissolving the salt.
Eventually this will be converted to an industrial process (I hope). And the robots will melt the pigs and etc.
Chris,
This is unrelated to this post but I found a cool site this week https://archive.org/ and I was wondering if you have used it? I found this book and it is on the archive. https://archive.org/details/earlynewenglandg0000gill/page/208/mode/2up
You have to set up a free account to borrow the books for an hour at a time but they have a lot of stuff on there!
Oh sure. You will find lots of stuff there in the public domain. And lots that is not (orphan works). Use the Wayback Machine to see websites that have been shut down. Fun stuff.
I figured you were privy to it. I will definitely be diving into the wayback machine.
I'd as soon work without my dividers in the shop as in the kitchen without my little coffee scale. Yeah, in either case, you don't need it to do good work. But man once you get used to it, you itch to reach for it when you see instructions in inches and feet/teaspoons, tablespoons, ounces, and cups. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/6a205d67-c698-409e-a515-bcd4b58f440e
I made the mistake of trying to glueup my armbow with 315 gram strength hot hide glue last week... Set up too fast, but got everything apart and cleaned up to try another day. I went back and realized in the Stick Chair Book you deliberately said you use Liquid Hide Glue as opposed to Hot Hide Glue, for the longer open time.
All of that to confirm, this recipe is for home made Hot Hide Glue, not Liquid Hide Glue? Have you been using this with your chair assembling? Or is the open time just not long enough? Thanks, as always.
(I also realized after the fact, pre-warming the parts with a heat gun would have helped a lot, maybe next time)
Urea or table salt can be added to hot hide glue to extend the open times! Lots of resources online to figure out the right amount to add
This is for liquid hide glue – about 15-18 minutes of open time.
Sweet! Thanks Megan, appreciate it~
Try this grocery store recipe:
8 ounce gelatin. (32 envelopes of Knox gelatin)
10 ounces of water
1 ounce of un-iodized salt (6 teaspoons)
Sea salt probably foams more because there are more minerals in it than just the NaCl. The other stuff creates the foam.
Is the recipe scalable, i.e., same proportions but smaller quantities? Unlikely I’d need that much for home use.
Yes. Completely scalable.
good thing it's scalable. don't think I'd ever get through that much unless i get hungry during glue-ups.
Aside from mixing my own, is it possible to make your glue a little thicker? Might it entail simply warming it less? I've been doing a bunch of small glue ups, and thicker would be better.
The best way to make it thicker is to cook it. The water controls the viscosity. Add water to thin it. Cook it an hour or two with the top open to thicken it up.
You can then add water to thin it again over and over.
Thanks!
145 is pretty specific: Are you using a sous vide type thing? Or just ballpark it at 145?
140 to 150 is fine.
Big thanks for generously sharing this! I will try it out next year when I (hopefully) have more time for woodworking again. I managed to do quite a lot of woodworking during my first daughters toddler years, but there is simply no time right now with two of them...
On another note - would you point in the general direction of your supplier of the old type of bottles? I love the look and they would be perfect for condiments (and glue, I guess).
We got those (and the new ones that are on the way) from https://aaronpackaging.com/
Thank you!
Honestly, the easier way to go is to buy a bottle of our glue. Use it. Then use it again for your glue. Aaron has some minimums.....
"Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black."
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Sweet!