emergency travel paper

[Fred Sturm]

	I've been using various "pressure sensitive" (meaning pre-sticky, with a 
glossy non-stick backing) bits of paper for years for travelling. (Things I 
get for free in the mail, usually, me being a cheapskate). Peels off the 
flange easily if you need to remove it and move it over, stays put later 
when you pull the shank for pinning or whatever. I cut a strip with 
scissors, peel the backing a bit, and go.
	As for being stable, frankly I find that the shanks and flanges themselves 
are more unstable than any travel paper I can imagine. I often find myself 
removing paper and papering the other side of a flange a couple years or 
more down the road. That is definitely caused by wood flexing, not by paper 
or glue doing whatever it might (and it doubt it would do much, regardless 
what glue or lack of glue there might be). Travelling, like just about any 
piano operation, is never "done for good," it's just as close to perfect as 
we can get it for a short window of time.
	That said, many shanks and flanges have straight enough grain that they 
will stay travelled beautifully virtually forever. But I don't think I've 
ever had a set where every single one stayed travelled after five years or 
so. Every time I go through a critical piano in a reasonably thorough 
manner, I check travelling, and find some work to do.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

--On Wednesday, June 4, 2003 9:27 AM -0500 "Elwood Doss, Jr." 
<edoss@utm.edu> wrote:

>
> Hey,
> Has anyone ever used the glue strip on the tab of a manila envelope as
> travel paper?  I am needing some strips to travel some hammers and left
> my supply at home.  It seems like the same stuff as the brown packaging
> roll that many of us have used in the past.  In fact, one could cut a
> couple of thin strips off the top, down to the reinforced hole in the tab
> and still use the envelope for mailing or storing something.  There would
> still be a large strip of glue as well as the two metal tabs that can be
> inserted through the reinforced hole and secure the tab over the opening
> of the envelope.  Just a thought...
> Joy!
> Elwood
>
> Elwood Doss, Jr.
> Technical Director/Piano Technician
> Department of Music
> 225 Fine Arts Building
> University of Tennessee at Martin
> 731/587-7482
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::