As I start to use granulated hide glue, as opposed to liquid hide glue I realised I needed a heated glue pot – preferably with a double boiler or thermostat controlled warmer.

I had heard of people using a coffee warmer, and I had a small one lying around gathering dust that I had picked up from a swap meet a year or two ago.

I did a couple of glue mixes using just the coffee warmer plate and an old vegemite jar, which was ok, but I felt that the bottom would overheat leaving cooler (potentially gelling) glue at the top.

So I modified the top of the original coffee jug by cutting a hole just large enough to screw the vegemite jar in, raising it a little form the bottom of the jug.

Then I put water in the coffee machine, let it drip through into the jug, then placed the glue jar with glue dissolved in an equal quantity of water as glue, into the coffee jug, and the warm water now surrounds the glue, keeping the whole thing at the right temperature moderated by a thermostat to about 65C.

Viola! the whole thing cost about $5 for the coffee machine, and the jar could have been any glass jar which might otherwise have just gone in the recycling bin.

glue pot

Cheers
Jerry