Been using titebond. Just started using Titebond 3. It seems to be good stuff.

And CA for inlays and binding. Epoxy on oily woods

use Titebond Original for most everything. I'm comfortable with it, so clean-up is no big deal, and I have taken joints apart.

Tried HHG once, it was a dissaster. Best guess is I had old glue, but my best efforts resulted in a working time of less than three seconds. The stuff would start to gel soon as I got it out of the pot! Definately a learning curve invovled here, some tricks I have yet to figure out. I did buy some new, but haven't had the nerve to try it out yet.

The fish stuff sounds interesting.

Tried Titebond III once, won't use it again on an instrument. Tack time was too long, felt like I was spending too much time and effort working around gummy glue.

Did you mix the hide glue properly? If you use too little water you would have such a short open time as you described. I mix 1 part glue to 2 part water by volume. I know its imprecise but it worked so far. That gives me about a minute of open time.

I thought I did, but who knows. I tried everything I could think of.

The project at the time was a fiddle kit, and it came with a packet of glue granules. I only needed to glue three things, the neck joint, fingerboard, and top, so I figured why not just mix up as much as I need? Three tablespoons or so, did it in a small double boiler, and paid real close attention to temps.

From another forum I was visiting at the time, the consensus was that the granules had become degraded from age, most likely from moisture getting into the packet. I have no idea how old it was. I finally got it to work in a very dilute form, using a wash coat. Then clamped on the top and used a hot, wet pallet knife to reactivate a few inches at a time.

Does it work better if you mix up more? And how much should I mix?

One minute working time sounds pretty good for most things I do, but is it enough for joining top halves? With the pieces only 1/8" thick, takes me longer than that to get everything clamped up and get a board across the seam.

Hide glue's nearly unlimited shelf life in dry form is one of my favorite things about it, along with the ability to reactivate with water and heat. But I've never encountered any that had been exposed to moisture for a long period of time, so maybe it does go funky.

There are 3 main ways to mess up hide glue: Not enough water, too much water, and surfaces too cold.

There's no minimum batch size to mix, but getting the water content right is a matter of feel so I can't explain it. I also vary it depending on the task (thicker for small joints like braces, thinner for large joints like headplate and fingerboard).

Most of the times I've had problems, it was too thick glue on a task that takes too long for it. You can use thick glue if you warm the surfaces and get it clamped within 5 seconds or so, but otherwise it leaves too thick of a glue line and will come apart easily.

Too thin glue doesn't ever really gel, but makes a weak joint as well even if you get it clamped while warm.

For heating, most of the time I just use my body heat (hold the piece between my arm and side or whatever) to get the open time up to 10-20 seconds, which is usually plenty to squeeze the glue out and get some clamps on. For the few joints that do need more time, there's a gas stove in the kitchen I should get a heat gun so I don't have to walk back and forth though.

And for plate joining, I also use the tape method, which is indeed extremely fast. Plus it prevents glue from getting on the show face, which saves some time scraping it off later.

Just because it has not been mentioned, I use a lot of Urea Formaldehyde glue. It comes in powder, so I have to mix it up, but it dries glass hard and is the strongest glue I have ever used.

Try getting a joint apart with that glue though. Virtually impossible without causing some damage.