29 January 2013

Temperature solutions...Part Deux-

The planned improvements to the heating arrangements in the 'shop have been far better than I reasonably hoped to expect, with the 'stat controlled rad constantly cutting in to keep in at around 10deg C...not super-toasty, but comfortable to work in....except....

...it's still not bloody hot enough to set glue!

I was in a bit of a rush yesterday evening (fatal for me) and needed to get a bit of veneering done for one of the drawers...top secret here, by the way, but all will revealed in the fullness of time, so I whacked the various layers into the AirPress bag, sealed it and turned on the pump.  To make doubly sure that it would bond I decided to leave it a mite longer...four hours instead of my normal two.

Around eightish, I sauntered out to the shop after tea, fully expecting the job to be nicely bonded, with the glue set and squeezing out the sides.

Fat chance...within 5 minutes of cleaning it up the whole thing had started to de-laminate and just peeled apart so I took a unilateral decision and it unceremoniously became bandsaw fodder.

So this morning I decided to do a proper job, as you do.  The 'shop was cleaned, tidied and vacuumed, the shelves were dusted and the tins re-arranged.  The veneers were re-sawn, taped, the substrate glued and the job placed into the bag, sealed ready for the 'switch on'

But in order not to have a repetition of last night's disastrous debacle, I needed some warmth...

Hot water bottle, heater of some sort or what?  I didn't have anything remotely convenient so what I did in the end was to sit our large stock-pot on the bag, pour a couple of kettles of boiling water into it and cover it with a thick duvet...

An hour later, job done...

5 comments:

Simon Oryx said...

Whay don't you just get an electric blanket like everybody else does?

Keith Smith said...

I have had luck under the same conditions heating the stock with a hair dryer. It will hold enough warmth to set the hide glue.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe change the thermostat setting from"1" to "2" or "3" or....

Jim B

Woodbloke said...

All of those solutions would work, but as I'm a parsimonious old git and the job was only 200x150mm, the stock pot was the easiest way to do it...thanks for all the comments by the way.

Woodbloke said...
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