Fancy glue bottles

[gwyneth]

On impulse, last week I spent $15 at Amazon for a glue bottle with a roller top, a stand, a little thing that keeps the tip damp and eight specialized tips.

If the $35 Lamello is the Rolls-Royce of glue bottles, this and similar ones would be the Cadillacs.

I used it for the first time today and the roller tip is really, really good.

Now here's my question. Given how much time (and likely glue) this baby saves, why are we so reluctant about buying them? My first thought was I should have done this long, long ago.

It had seemed ridiculous to spend $15 for a glue bottle. But woodworkers spend a lot more, as we all know, on tools.

Why does forking that amount out for a glue bottle seem so silly when many of us would think nothing of paying $15 for a router bit? Especially when the glue bottle would get used a great deal more?

I'm not trying to convert anybody to the expensive glue bottle way of life...just curious about people's thoughts.

[Pappy]

I have one that I picked up at a WW show a few years ago that has a roller and a biscuit slot head. Not a real good one, but it work good for edge glueing. Seriously keep looking at the Glue-Bots, just never pulled the trigger on one.

[atgcpaul]

I had a WWing teacher who loves his Glue-Bot. I don't mind the flat tipped top
that comes on the bottles of Titebond. Maybe if the bottle had an electrical
cord attached to it or a piece of carbide on the tip, I'd buy one. For me I don't
stress out about glue ups, but I get nervous if I don't have the right tool or
router bit.

Paul

[Ken Massingale]

I uese the roller and biscuit attachment a lot. Most of the time I use a BabyBot and a flux brush. IMO the BabyBot is the cat's meow.

[jackellis]

I've never heard of these. Normally I squeeze a line of glue from the bottle onto the joint, then use a cheap HF glue brush to spread it out. I don't clamp tightly so I get little or no squeezout.

[jhart]

Never having used one, it always seems to me that the roller would get full of dried glue when you're done. How do you go about cleaning it? Or am I missing something?

[jobole]

I like using a J-style laminate roller to even out the glue. It spreads out a nice coating, throw it in a sink of warm water when finished and the glue coating rolls right off the rubber.

[pecker]

I don't like the Glue-Bot type. As long as it's more than half full it works OK. But below that, you have to squeeze the bottle rather hard to get anything out of it.

[sweensdv]

I just have a hard time justifying in my mind spending $15 on a product that is worth $1 at best. Would I pay $5, probably, but $15, no way.

[eddy merckx]

I bought a set of restaurant style condiment bottles at the dollar store. Ketchup for Elmer's, mustard for Titebond. I like the caps on lanyards and pliable bodies. Pretty low tech though. You still have to spread the glue around with a little piece of wood or flux brush.

[JoeyGee]

I think I spent less than $5 on a Rockler glue bottle a few years ago. It's very simple, but I like it much better than the Titebond bottles for some reason that I can't put my finger on. It's one of my happy less than $5 WWing purchases (there aren't many).

I have a Craftsman glue bottle set with the roller and biscuit heads. It works OK, but I found it wasn't worth the limited amount I use it. I use cheap acid brushes, which seem to work fine.

To answer an earlier question, the glue on my Craftsman heads peels right off when it's dry. I assume others do the same.

[radhak]

Amazon shows a long list of glue bottles. G, I guess you refer to the 'Big Horn' one?

Wonder if the others work as well or at all?

I have thought of getting one such, but have not. My problem with such a setup would be the added hassles (well, you asked ) -
a. buying a large container of glue and transferring to this bottle, and the related mess and cleanup. easier to buy a smaller bottle, use it up and get another.
b. needing different bottles for different glues (tite / gorilla/...) and the hassle multiplied
c. and of course, do they really work? before your recommendation, i'd have just blown it off as a gimmick, not worth buying/shipping/trying/trashing. and do they work for large cabinet glue-ups, or just smaller projects (ie, amount of glue dispensed, 'open' time, etc).
d. even now, would not be sure of it's longevity - will it hold up to casual shop usage?

there was this review of all various glues in wood last year, and one of the criterion was the bottle and it's tip. tite-3 was rated better because it's tip was shaped right and it's cover easy to use and replace. guess what, after 4 months with me, the current bottle's tip just broke at the base and i am back to taping it and using the bottle as a regular cup, dipping my brush in the glue.

and of course, gorilla is a different beast altogether - i thought i was being very careful with it, wiping off after use, kept bottle upside down; but found the cap/tip totally glued up; will have to cut the top open. How would this new bottle handle it?

and so, bottomline : it might seem too much angst for a bottle of glue, but my shop drawers are full of hoped-for solutions that don't work : a 2.4 volt cordless skill driver (too weak for anything), an 'instant-spray-can-converter' from HF, a trim-router for $9 ( ) from 'Homier' ... (ok, for the last, it was my brain that was not working when i ordered it ), so nowadays i look for the real timesavers / tools, and muddle along for the smaller stuff.

[hermit]

I got one of the fancy green rubber type bottles with roller and various tips once for Christmas (I actually requested it), and it was a big waste of $. Could never get the cap off. Its in the local landfill now. I did find the roller handy, so I found a cheap plastic bottle with only the roller for around $4 I think, and it is nice when needed for large flat areas. I usually still use Titebonds regular tip most of the time.

Todd

[eezlock]

glue bottles

I bought a set of restaurant style condiment bottles at the dollar store. Ketchup for Elmer's, mustard for Titebond. I like the caps on lanyards and pliable bodies. Pretty low tech though. You still have to spread the glue around with a little piece of wood or flux brush.

Eddie, another 2 workable solutions for spreading glue is
(1) use the discarded handle from a foam paint brush with the
small plastic tab still attached after the foam has been removed.

(2) those fake plastic credit cards that are always coming in the mail.

eezlock

[gwyneth]

Amazon shows a long list of glue bottles. G, I guess you refer to the 'Big Horn' one?

Wonder if the others work as well or at all?

I have thought of getting one such, but have not. My problem with such a setup would be the added hassles (well, you asked ) -
a. buying a large container of glue and transferring to this bottle, and the related mess and cleanup. easier to buy a smaller bottle, use it up and get another.
b. needing different bottles for different glues (tite / gorilla/...) and the hassle multiplied
c. and of course, do they really work? before your recommendation, i'd have just blown it off as a gimmick, not worth buying/shipping/trying/trashing. and do they work for large cabinet glue-ups, or just smaller projects (ie, amount of glue dispensed, 'open' time, etc).
d. even now, would not be sure of it's longevity - will it hold up to casual shop usage?

there was this review of all various glues in wood last year, and one of the criterion was the bottle and it's tip. tite-3 was rated better because it's tip was shaped right and it's cover easy to use and replace. guess what, after 4 months with me, the current bottle's tip just broke at the base and i am back to taping it and using the bottle as a regular cup, dipping my brush in the glue.

and of course, gorilla is a different beast altogether - i thought i was being very careful with it, wiping off after use, kept bottle upside down; but found the cap/tip totally glued up; will have to cut the top open. How would this new bottle handle it?

and so, bottomline : it might seem too much angst for a bottle of glue, but my shop drawers are full of hoped-for solutions that don't work : a 2.4 volt cordless skill driver (too weak for anything), an 'instant-spray-can-converter' from HF, a trim-router for $9 ( ) from 'Homier' ... (ok, for the last, it was my brain that was not working when i ordered it ), so nowadays i look for the real timesavers / tools, and muddle along for the smaller stuff.

radhak, not only did you figure out what I bought, you scoped out the real question I was asking, which is essentially, why don't we consider glue bottles real tools?

In the last two years, I've spread more than three gallons of glue, some of it on very large areas (almost as big as a sheet of plywood). I've used brushes of all kinds, fake credit cards, a large flat thingy that was designed to smooth spackle, squeegies, condiment bottles of several kinds, and probably some other makeshift attempts to do it better and faster.

I didn't even consider trying a fancy glue bottle--the idea of spending money for one just seemed frivolous.

But as radhak points out, our drawers are filled with more expensive things that didn't save time.