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I just bought a CrockPot Little Dipper for use as a glue pot, and so far in my testing, it is heating the water to about 180 degreesF. It was my understanding that these run in the 140-150F range that we need for hide glue. Is there any way to modify it to run a little cooler? I've been putting off gluing my braces until I got everything set up for hide glue, and I'd really hate to have to send this thing back and hunt down another glue pot. As always, any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Zac

Don/t know if this helps . I have an old small crock pot from the 70/s or 80/s ? they called it a baby bottle warmer that I use for heating up HHG. I use a candy glue thermometer to measure . I Dont measure the water bath? try adding more water to the water bath to cool .I also keep my DIY wood lid off .I measure with the thermometer inside the glue pot .between 135-150 F seems to work .Heating up your work . when air temp is below 65 deg F Gives more open time.

This may not be the answer you are looking for but
I am using a Rival Hot Pot Express. It has a rheostat and it hits and holds 140-150 at the #2 setting.
The cost was about $15, they do go on sale and it is working 5 years strong. May cost you more than that to modify what you have.
Good Luck
Tim

That's the problem with no adjustability to the water temperature.
Try a mock up with water in a jar inside the Little Dipper measuring the temperature in the jar. Mine runs about 5 degrees below water bath temperature.
Leaving the lid off will just evaporate the water, the temperature controller will tend to heat to the same temperature.
Oh, and check your thermometer(s) are reading correctly. Try boiling water for 212 degrees F.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

So far, I've only measured the temp of water in the pot. I've just mixed a small batch of glue in a plastic squeeze bottle and will temp the actual glue once the water has heated up.

Good advice on checking the thermometer, Colin. I have a very nice Comark C22 that I picked up in one of the kitchens I worked in, and never even thought to check the accuracy. Sure enough, I'm only getting a reading of 209F in boiling water.

Would a router speed control work? If you have one, it might be worth trying.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Definitely.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Not so with the little dipper. I don't think it has a temperature control at all. Just a heating element that coincidentally keeps the water around 140-150F if the lid is off. It gets much hotter with the lid on. I do have to add more water to mine every few hours, but most of the time I don't have the glue out for that long anyway.

Seems high, my Little Dipper without a lid maintains 140 to 145 degrees. Must be defective.

Chuck

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It will get too hot if you keep it covered. Leave it open, and it should be no more than 140-145...

Mario P. turned us on to these some 8 years ago or so and I ran out and bought one right away. Unfortunately the one that I purchased sucked and was also way too hot (uncovered) so I went back to my trusty Rival not-so-hot-plastic-pot.

I remember taking mine, Little Dipper, apart looking for a rheostat or some clever way to knock the heat down but to no avail.

Listen to what Mario says about HHG temp, it's important to not let it get over 145F. Mario is also the master of working with HHG for more difficult applications as well such as his very cool video about using HHG to attach the plates to the rim.

Anyway my Little Dipper was relegated to making baked potatoes.... I love baked potatoes....

As Mario and Dennis and Chuck have pointed out, and as I discovered for myself today, leaving the lid off gives the desired temperature results. Thanks everyone for your responses, now it's time for me to go practice using the glue before I dive into the bracing!