Good for your muscles, but bad for your joints

I recently had to take apart an edge-glued panel because of a mistake. Unfortunately, modern wood glues hold so tenaciously that the wood breaks before the glue joint. The solution my wife gave me was a bit less drastic than splintering the panel or cutting out the joint.

She lent me a heat bag that she uses for sore muscles—a small cloth bag she made from a pillowcase and filled with 3 or 4 pounds of rice. At her suggestion, I heated it in the microwave to the point it was almost too hot to handle. I then wrapped the glue joint with the hot bag and let it sit for about 15 minutes. The heat softened the glue, and the joint came apart easily without any damage to the wood.
—Richard Harris, Middletown, R.I.