Re: Gaming Table Advice Requested
Wiley Horne--Glendora, CA
>Hi Greg,
First off, that is a beautiful project to have undertaken. I hope you will provide lots of photos showing the construction and ornamentation on it. I also agree with Tony that you will want to check with the folks at SAPFM on specific hide glue procedures and the choice of secondary wood. They may even know what the French practice might have been.
I'm a beginner myself at hide glue, but will share my early thoughts, based on experience so far:
Thought #1--It's Real Different: Hide glue is not just a little different from what you've been doing so far--it's about exactly the opposite. There is a different logic for glue-up using hide glue, and there is a different rhythm to how you go about it.
Thought #2--Practice: It's not so much a trial run on your particular project glue-up that you need; it's getting familiar and comfortable with using hide glue, considering that it's so different. IME, what you want to do is just put a pot of hot glue in your shop right now, and have it there, and as opportunities present themselves, use it. That's the only way to get a feel for it. I mean, part of getting used to hide glue is remembering to add water from time to time, and unplug it at night, etc etc.
Thought #3--Speed vs. Precision. With yellow glue or polyurethane (which I really hate), I'm thinking about how to make a neat job of it, in order to minimize clean up and squeeze out in hard-to-get-at places, like in drawer corners. But with hide glue, I'm thinking speed. It'll clean up easily, and very completely, so there's no worry if there's lots of squeeze out. It gets to a jelly-like consistency, and scrapes off. In fact, on small ornamental glue-ups--like husk-and-drop bellflowers, or banding--just plunge the whole piece into the soup and bring it out dripping and install it. And it cleans up without leaving a light unfinishable place on the work--so prefinishing becomes optional, not essential.
Thought #4--Pacing the Work: Think about a drawer. With yellow glue, in most cases my plan will be to glue up the whole drawer in one pass, i.e., the clamps go on when all four joints are together. So there's planning as to how the clamps will go, then get the joints together, then clamp, then go find something else to do for an hour. But with hide glue, it's more of a "rolling glue up". Go one joint at a time, but keep working. For a small drawer like on the gaming table, I might just stick the whole pin section into the glue, bring it out dripping and hammer it into the tails board, and put a clamp on that much. Then go get the rear board, plunge its pins into the glue, and hammer that into the same tails board. Then glue that much. The glue will come off one-two-nothing as it gels. In a few minutes, take those clamps off, go get the other drawer side, plunge its tails into the glue, and hammer it into place--replace the clamps. I have a furniture-maker friend who says what he loves about hide glue on drawers is that it gives the dovetails a 'growed together' look as the water swells the wood, but the drying glue pulls everything together.
Bottom line: If you want to give it shot, just get some glue flakes and something to heat it in, and do a few rub joints, etc etc, just to get a feel for it. Your gaming table project won't require any special practice, but rather more of a gut feel on your part of how to organize a glue up using hot hide glue.
Be sure and check with the SAPFM folks--they've been extremely helpful to me as a newbie in their area of expertise.
Wiley
