A Better Glue Bottle - Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag
In this episode, luthier Robbie O’Brien discusses a better glue bottle he acquired from LMI.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag]
Mailbag question: Do you lose the cap to your glue bottles like I do?
Robert O'Brien: Today's Tips du Jour Mailbag question comes to us from Alaska. "Robert, I was curious, are you like me? Do you also lose the cap to your glue bottles? Chris, in Alaska."
Chris, you have no idea. I lose a lot of caps to my glue bottles. In fact, I even sometimes lose the whole glue bottle. I'm sure that's never happened to you.
During my building classes here in my shop, usually by noon on day two, we've already lost the cap to the glue bottle. However, I recently came across a product that I now get from LMI. It's a new glue bottle and it's pretty dadgum difficult to lose the cap. It's still possible, but there's some really cool features to this new glue bottle. Let me show you some.
The GlueBot glue bottle
The GluBot comes in two different sizes. The normal size, which is great for regular woodworkers where they use a lot of glue, and a smaller size, which is perfect for lutherie, and it's called the Babe-Bot. One of the disadvantages of a regular glue bottle is that they tip over pretty easily. The GluBot and the Babe-Bot have wider bases, so they're a little more stable on the bench. It comes with two different tip sizes. One is a small pointed one, which is perfect for doing things like bindings and purflings, and then the other one that's a little wider, that you can cut to different size depending on how much flow you want to come out. The GluBot has this handy little storage spot right on top there, like that, so you never run the risk of losing the cap unless you forget to put it in the storage area.
Since this glue bottle is intended to be reusable, you need a way to load it, and that's very easily done through the wide mouth here. Just open it up and pour your fresh glue in. In order to show you one of the coolest features about this glue bottle, I need to remove the label. I'm just going to pop off this rubber band that comes with it. The label comes off, and now you can see there's two chambers, or two reservoirs in this glue bottle. What does that do? That allows you to squeeze at the bottom and the glue comes out and goes up this other reservoir, or this other chamber here, and then comes out here. When I release, the glue flows back in and there's no glue left in the tip to clog. That also allows me to apply glue in a vertical position, rather than having to tip the glue bottle over to do it.
So Chris in Alaska, I think you'll agree, there's some really cool little features to this new glue bottle. It's definitely an improvement over the old style. The problem is remembering to take the cap, when you're using it, and putting it here in the storage area. If you can do that, I think at the end of the day you'll still have the cap to the glue bottle.
[on-screen text reads: More Luthier Tips and online courses available at www.obrienguitars.com. Private and small group guitar building and finishing instruction available.]
