Best Glue For Replacing Felt In Machinist Drawers

[Danf]

I like to us Liquid Hide Glue from Titebond 7or8$
old felt can be removed with hot water

I have rebuilt a number of machinist chests, most in tough condition. I typically take them completely apart and reglue the parts, sometimes replacing missing pieces. This is possible because the chests are assembled with hide glue that can be removed with hot water as discussed above. I have become a fan of using adhesives that can be removed without damaging wood. I reglue the wood parts with the modified hide glue bleonard uses, and install the felt with (premixed) wallpaper paste. I learned about wall paper paste in another forum from someone who worked on valuable antiques where reversible repairs are valued. The paste takes awhile to dry so you have some time to position the felt. It's tough to work on a chest where someone has used modern adhesives that make disassembly or felt removal without damage almost impossible.

 

[gmcken]

Thank all of you that responded to this post. I have an old antique wooden machinist chest to replace the felt inside of all the drawers and several Kennedy metal drawers needing felt replacement. I like the idea of being able to easily remove the felt if needed in the future. I had not thought of the hide glues, great idea. Again many thanks!

 

[sbx]

Funny this post came up. I just re-felted an old Gerstner I am restoring. Based on some other forums and internet searching, I used the Titebond Liquid hide glue. I used an acid brush to evenly coat the drawer bottom, after painstakingly fitting the replacement felt. I used Acrylic felt for this. I then just layed the felt down slow and even. Worked very well.

After applying the felt, and using a small round piece of Delrin cut off to smooth it out, the felt came out very nicely. Hope that helps.

 

[Rex Walters]

Heh. It's clear I'm not the only reformed woodworker/luthier.

For what it's worth, I'm also a big fan of both double-sided carpet tape (for all kinds of things — including light duty work holding on a lathe faceplate!) and hide glue. I'm not terribly fond of Titebond's hide glue, though. The good stuff comes in sticks or chips and has to be melted with water in a glue pot, which, unfortunately is a real hassle unless you always have a pot going.

From the photo, Gerstner's Whew! Glue looks like it comes in solid chunks, but I've never used it. My go-to hide glue is liquid Old Brown Glue (smallest quantity is only eight bucks US). It stays liquid but is much closer in working characteristics to real hot hide glue than the Titebond stuff. It's quite usable out of the bottle, but you can adjust the consistency by giving the bottle a bath (put it in a pan of hot — bath-temperature, not boiling — water for a few minutes until it thins out to the consistency you want). Great stuff.

Okay back to our regular machining.... ;-)
--
Rex

 

[Terrywerm]

I hate to bring up an old thread, but for some reason I missed this one a while back, and I have a question: Does hide glue work to adhere felt to a metal drawer such as in a Kennedy box?

Secondly, thank you Rex for the tip on Old Brown Glue. I remember using the hot hide glue in high school many years ago, but have always used Elmer's or Titebond wood glue at home but have not been totally happy with the results. I believe that I will have to give the Old Brown Glue a try.

 

[4GSR]

Terry,

It should work fine. That's what Gerstner uses to glue felt down in their boxes. I found the Scotch 77 spray adhesive to work ok in my boxes that I've redone.

Ken

 

[Duker]

I hate to bring up an old thread, but for some reason I missed this one a while back, and I have a question: Does hide glue work to adhere felt to a metal drawer such as in a Kennedy box?

Secondly, thank you Rex for the tip on Old Brown Glue. I remember using the hot hide glue in high school many years ago, but have always used Elmer's or Titebond wood glue at home but have not been totally happy with the results. I believe that I will have to give the Old Brown Glue a try.

Terry,

While I can't offer any machining knowledge as I am a rookie machinist I am a third generation woodworker and I have restored a few Tool boxes but mainly older period furniture. As Rex mentioned luthiers as well as cabinet makers used hide glue where delicate or the potential for replacement of parts was needed as with heat you can disassemble. The advantage of using hide glue ( or a thinned Tite-bond) is the open working time and the ability to adjust the parts if they are uneven or out of place. If you want quick, easy but harder to apply in one shot then it's hard to beat 3M's line of spray adhesives. I am old school as I like the hide beads and heat them in a double boiler. The newer hide glues have much better adhesion qualities but you rarely see it used much now outside of instruments and antique restoration anymore.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[The Liberal Arts Garage]

I am in the process of replacing the felt in several machinist cabinet drawers. I have read that some glues will cause the tools to rust or damage them. Some of the drawers are metal and some are wood. Any suggestions?

Auto headliner spray, light but even coat.........BLJHB.

 

[EmilioG]

3m 77 spray glue works well and you don't need to glue every square inch. Some drawers I don't even use any glue.
Cut properly, it will sit in place.

 

[Wreck™Wreck]

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