>Does anyone have any info on where I can get some liquid hot glue and is
>there anyone who has used it before?  I read about in an article that
>said the only difference was the liquid took longer to set up.

Natural or Hide glue can be prepared so that it remains liquid at room
temperature; "Franklin's Hide Glue" is an example of this which is widely
sold.

Although it seems to have all the properties of hot glue after it dries
by evaporation, it must be used with caution in player work (if used at
all; I don't use it much myself) because it lacks one essential property
of hot glue; namely that hot glue, as its temperature drops after the
joint is made-up, changes phase from a liquid to a colloidal gel, prior
to finally drying hard by evaporation.

This property creates the disadvantage that one must work quickly to
apply the glue and make-up the joint before this temperature drop occurs,
since once the glue reaches the transition 'gel' phase it is unable to
'wet' the materials being joined.  If the pieces are brought together too
late, the joint will fail.

However, this property has one tremendous advantage: In this gel phase,
the join has enough strength (even though the final hardening by
evaporation has not taken place) to hold the work together, so that one
can go on to other work.  In most player applications, this 'early tack
strength' is enough to hold the joint without clamping, or only brief
clamping as in the case of reattaching pneumatics to the board.

Another great advantage of hot glue is that it preserves the flexibility
and softness of materials like felt, leather or cloth when they are glued
to wood or to each other.  For example, when gluing felt to wood, the
glue while still hot will begin to soak into the felt by capillary action
like any other liquid.  But as soon as the bits of liquid migrate away
from the hot mass of glue at the joint, through the pores in the felt,
they loose temperature rapidly, gel, and stop migrating.  Thus the joint
ends up very strong with the glue concentrated at the interface, but the
porous material is not stiffened by glue soaking through most of its
thickness.  On the other hand, if one seats pouches, for example, with a
liquid adhesive, one will find that the adhesive will have soaked outward
through the pouch, beyond the rim of the pouch-well, thereby stiffening
the edge of the pouch and effectively reducing its flexible area.

I respectfully suggest that anyone beginning to acquire the skills of the
rebuilder, procure a glue-pot, and learn by practice, the technique to
use hot glue in every application where the original maker used it.  This
effort will be rewarded, not only by the authenticity (and future
redo-ability) of the rebuild, but also by time and effort saved in the
short run.

Richard Vance