Official Luthiers Forum!

I have probably mentioned these before, but I recently saw a retailer reselling this item for a significant markup, and I thought I would provide information to fellow OLFers who want to save a few dollars by buying direct.

Here is the link to the Musicaravan glue pot:

http://www.musicaravan.com/gluepot/

I love these things. They fit right into my preferred way of working with hot hide glue.

I'm not crazy about the little cup warmers; I use laboratory hot plates, which are not all that expensive if you buy used. This is the kind I use, and it's awesome:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/V-W-R-SCIENTIF ... SwSX9XBVO4

Is this as inexpensive as a Rival Hot Pot? Nope. But it is more reliable, the heat is more exact and consistent, and it lets me mix my glue up fresh every time, in small amounts, with the right consistency for the job at hand. And it's just darn elegant, which is something I value more and more as time goes by.

There are some neat little brass tea pots on ebay that could sit on that hot plate also. For those who use the little plastic bottles they might make a unique looking glue pot for cheap.

I've got one of the little brass ones and really like it. It's a perfect fit for my mini glue bottles, and as an added bonus I can set the pot to the side and use the warming base to keep my tea/coffee warm when I'm not using glue.

I've got to get one of these

I use a wax warmer. And if your crotch is a little too hairy you can give yourself a bikini wax. I got a nice one on amazon for $23 works perfect. The build on this thing is pretty darn good for $20 something bucks. I fill it with water and use a plastic squeeze bottle with a toothpick for a stopper though you could probibly put the glue directly in it.

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Michael F Smith
Goat Rock Ukulele
http://goatrockukulele.com

I got the Lee Valley version. Not as pretty but does the job.

Other than appearance (both are nice looking), the big difference between the Lee Valley version and the MusiCaravan version is glue capacity. The Lee Valley version holds 1 oz. of glue, but the MusiCaravan version holds 3 oz. of glue. I like the larger capacity, but I could see repair folks preferring the smaller one. And it is definitely less expensive.

A nice feature of either glue pot is that the warm water bath allows you to remove the glue pot from the heat source for a short while, place it right next to (or right onto) the workpiece, do the gluing with minimal mess and minimal heat loss, then put the glue pot back on the heat source. The glue stays at the right temperature for a pretty long time without a heat source, thanks to the warm water bath.

I have this brass pot too and absolutely love it. I got it from LMI when I was ordering a bunch of other stuff so taking into consideration shipping costs on what would have been two orders the price was a wash. I got the plate warmer too and find that it works perfectly. After having tried a bunch of other solutions like heat lamps, baby bottle warmers and so on I pulled the trigger on this and though it is the more expensive solution I find it totally worth it. It's a no brainier. I fill up the pot with hot tap water and set it on the cup warmer and 15 minutes later am ready to go. I don't have to think or worry about anything. Money well spent IMHO. I also like how I can just remove the pot and seal the lid with plastic wrap and put it in a ziplock in the refrigerator till the next day or even week or more. Then when the glue seems to be too old it's really easy to just pop out in it's rubber stage with a stick and it cleans easily with hot water. Also when you glue up a bridge or something you can just remove the pot, dip a rag in the hot water, and use that to clean up glue squeeze out.

I took a good year to build my workshop up from an old barn and the hardwood floors and window trim all look beautiful. The idea being that if I work in a beautiful workshop I will produce beautiful work. It might sound trite but I like the way the thing looks and that matters to me and customers seem to appreciate it also and I know that it will last for ever.

I would love to see photos of your shop! My wife and I will be selling our house and buying a smaller one (soon, I hope), and building or renovating a shop is part of the plan. It sounds like you and I have similar aesthetic preferences.

The house we bought a few years back has two outbuildings. One was an old barn that we made into my workshop and the other into my wife's pottery workshop. The old barn was well built and already had 60amps of power to it but no insulation heat air and so on.

This is what it looked like when we moved in:



Trimmed out the windows and made shelves from old oak barnwood from our previous house:



A work bench that I can move around was a must for this new shop. I didn't have that before:



Added a 'riser' for the vice:



As it is now fully functional:



It's a small shop but what you don't see in those pics is that there is a loft above it and also another garage attached on the side with big open double doors that I have my big resaw in and other work benches for outdoor sanding and for spraying nitro.