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Hot glued dollhouse


macduff

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I just picked up a partially completed Artply Barrington on CL. The house was put together using hot glue, and I'm wondering if I should take it apart and re-glue it with wood glue. What do you think? I was thinking maybe I could use a hair dryer to melt the glue? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Andrea

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I had heard bad things about hot glue as well. I think it has been quite a few years since the house was originally put together, so I was worried about the hot glue not holding. I haven't really inspected it closely to see how well it's put together. I'm trying to clear some space in my workroom, and in the meantime the house is sitting in the corner of the garage.

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Hummm,I took my hot glued one apart.Basically the pieces popped apart easily,then you just pull the glue off.If I came to a piece that was still firmly glued,I just found some areas on those pieces where there was no hot glue and just loaded the crack between with carpenters glue.So.if the pieces are loose,take it apart,if they are firm just find a place to squeeze in some good glue.

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One more thing,on mine the hot glue didn't seem to hold on painted areas,they were really falling apart.The places where both pieces of wood were unpainted were not so bad.

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If the house was built with the old, high-temp melt hot glue it might be OK, unless there are lots of drips & globs. If it's coming loose or pieces have begun to drop off, I would recommend removing the rest of the hot glue (a hairdryer is probably OK, for the houses I've rehabbed a heat gun worked out best to get the places that had been painted over) and rebuilding it properly with wood glue.

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My first Harrison was a floor model from a craft store here in town. The crazy people had put it together with hot glue. Luckily, it was not painted. The store stopped carrying dollhouse things and I got it for very little money. When I got it home, it was already coming apart. All I had to do was tap it here and there and it literally fell to pieces. I wouldn't use hot glue if someone paid me to do so. It just isn't meant for this kind of application. Go for heavy bodied white glue or wood glue!

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This one I bought to rehab is done a little differently. gobs of glue in some places, none in others. Old yellow carpenter's glue, too.

It looks like she glued down the corner posts on the house, but not the bottom siding panels. It is literally only stuck to the foundation at the corners of the house. Tons of glue on the stair case, but again, the roof is only glued down to the corners pieces. The roof pretty much popped right off and the house is off the foundation. But you couldn't get the stairs out, without a demolition crew.

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Sounds like the first house I attempted to rehab, I really needed to disassemble it to do what it seemed to want, but there was no way without destroying it, so I gave it a repaint. Give me a hot-glued house to rehab every time! It may take a while to take apart and will definitely destroy the windows & trims; but windows built with hot glue are already a lost cause and VERY easy to make better ones!

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