Anyone Use Hotmelt Glue? - Sawmill Creek Woodworking

I'm wondering how many people use hot melt glues and how they use them and for what jobs? Once the cartridge is in the gun, how long can it stay there in storage? Clamps, nails, screws?
OK...confession...I've had one of these guns sitting in my garage for years, but never used it, because I don't know how and for what applications it is best used and because I never had much confidence in the bond strength. I also, generally need a little more open time than I think the hot melt glues allow.

It's good as a temporary fastener or used in a non structural area; for example, I run a bead of it under drawer bottoms to keep them from ever rattleing or use a dollop on a block to hold something in places while other glue dries. I also will put a drop of it on the tabs where my tablesaw insert sits and then press a new wood insert into it, stopping when I'm flush with the table. Let it cool an viola! a flush zero clearance insert.

I use glue stick hot melt for plywood drawer bottoms, keeps them quiet and solid. A small bead front and back is all it takes. I've used them for temporary holding on jigs, any where a quick reversible bond is neccessary. I have a feeling when you say cartridge though you are discussing something like Hipur hot melt, which is a whole different animal. It has the quick set no clamp strength of hot melt but cures over night to polyurethane strength, and excells at end grain glue ups where yellow glue is weak. I haven't used it but primary small shop use among guys I know are molding assemblies, like tricky pediments or complex crowns, and glass grills. Good for exterior too being highly water resistant. I saw a crown demo a few years back using titebond hi pur, 10 minutes out you couldn't break the joint with a hammer, I've wanted the kit since but haven't quite had the need to make it happen.

I used to have one of the PUR guns and sold it after a couple months as it didn't do much for me. The glue sets really, really fast! They do have different set times, but even the slow set was too fast for me. It also tends to have a much larger glue line than regular PVA glue. It is used in large manufacturing plants for production work so it obviously has significant benefits in the right situation. I just couldn't find any for my small shop

good luck,
JeffD

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but the hot glue I'm talking about is the Pur system. From what I've seen on youtube, it instantly holds and the wood fails before the joint. It does however, take 24 hours to fully cure. Sounds like some of you think I'm talking about the crafting type of hot melt glue, which the Pur system is not. I believe it's polyurethane. At any rate, from what I've read, there is nothing temporary about this glue. I just wanted to know how it's used.

When I worked at aristokraft (probably near 20 years ago now) we used hot melt glue and staples exclusively to assemble everything (face frames and doors were, of course, done separately).

The hot melt went into a large stationary pot and each "clamp" (a pneumatic adjustable jig that kept everthing clamped and square) assembled a cabinet in just under 2 minutes, so open time wasn't too much of an issue. It was unlike any stick glue that I've ever seen, though, it didn't come in sticks, it came in bulk and looked like little pieces of corn that you scooped into the pot and the running temperature was somewhere around 350 or 380 degrees. It was liquid for a while even after it came out of the clamp (and if you stuck your hand in a cabinet and accidentally touched a glue line, you could get burned.

The glue seam was very thick but remained pliable indefinitely on any older cabinets I've ever seen. Dados were all cut significantly oversized to accomodate the glue and rabbets left a substantial gap even when assembled, IIRC, for the glue.

Cabinet quality has increased a lot since then (price, too). The doors, face frames and drawer fronts were pretty good quality, but most carcase work was designed to be done fast there.