Caught my glue pot burning after 20 years of bookbinding

I was regluing a spine last Thursday and smelled something off, then realized my glue pot had been way too hot the whole time because I never used a thermometer. Turns out overheating the PVA makes it brittle and my books were falling apart faster than they should. Has anyone else accidentally ruined their glue by ignoring the temperature settings?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim96318d ago

Yeah, I did that with a batch of paste once... melted the whole thing down and had to start over. A cheap thermometer saves so much headache, just grab one from the baking aisle.

the_fiona18d ago

...but honestly I'm gonna push back a little here. I've been doing bookbinding for about 15 years without ever using a thermometer on my glue pot and my books are still holding together fine. Maybe it depends on the specific PVA you're using? Some of the cheaper ones might be more sensitive, but the higher quality stuff has a wider tolerance range in my experience. I keep my pot on the lowest setting and just stir it every so often to check the consistency by feel, never had a problem. Plus thermometers can be finicky too, I've seen cheap ones give false readings and then you're chasing a number that isn't even right.