Fill 'er up!

We go through buckets of glue every year at the shop, and I'm not just saying that metaphorically - literally five gallon buckets are our mainstay!  

So imagine my surprise when I got a delivery the other day from my supplier, and the bucket had no pouring spout! 

There was the outline of a circle in the lid, I'm guessing it was where the spout was supposed to be, so I took the lid off, 

 thinking it might be underneath, and somehow the cover didn't get punched to access it. 

 Nada.

I called Titebond, which happens to be in Columbus, Ohio - part of my old stomping grounds, and spoke to a fellow who seemed incredulous that they could ship a five-gallon bucket with the wrong lid... did he think I was making it up?  

So I sent him proof.

And a few days later, I not only received  a lid with the proper spigot, but a box of Titebond swag....glue brushes, clamp tape,  

stickers, 

even a T-shirt! Thanks Titebond!

Back in the day, MacGuyver was one of my favorite TV shows, so I felt like I could make the lid they sent better. 

Why not, I'd waited this long, already!?

I had noticed a plastic bottle in my house that had a spigot on it, so I appropriated it (stole it!) from the bottle, and voila! - it fit perfectly, although due to the viscosity of the glue, it made pouring a little slow.  

 S    L    O    W... ugh.

Plus - the blue "knob" had to be held down to pour, and it's not like I have all day to sit and fill bottles.... on to Plan B. 

I found this on Amazon, and ordered it - but it still wasn't the right solution - the cap on it was too large to screw onto the spigot. 

 So some serious plastic re-engineering was in order. I used the spigot from one, with the cap from another, and combined them to make this bad-boy.

And BAM! 

Just like that, I was back in the business of filling all the glue bottles at the shop. 

This probably sounds like a menial chore, but with a dozen or more bottles (and two different colors of Titebond), as well as plugged caps and cracked plastic, it's nearly a full time job just keeping our bottles in shape!

My vacation is nearly over, and a full line of classes start back up next week. It's hard to believe we're half-way through 2018!