Colon Stuff

[Ron Torrella]

On Mon, 26 Jun 1995 Daleboy@aol.com wrote:

> In response to the issue of underlever flange material......I have used BANJO
> HEADS (made from veal or goat intestine, tough stuff) and applied with
> hide glue.
> The above material was moistened just a bit as to accept the hot hide
> glue......too much moisture softens the material too much and will weaken it.
> Split the flanges with a very thin saw blade from a hobby shop. Let me know
> what happens.....Dale Whitehead RPT (Daleboy@aol.com) Nashville Tn.

Well, as a matter of fact, I got thin, tough leather and made the repair.
What I ended up doing for a start was steaming the leather out of the kerf
in the end of the underlever.  I then slicked up a new piece of leather
and slid it into the slot in the underlever, clamped and trimmed it,
leaving a "tongue" to pull the underlever tight against the "flange rail."

The other half of the problem was a little more tricky.  The "flange rail"
(it's not really a flange rail;  it's just the part where the underlever
is glued into place on the tray--the leather serving as a zero-gram-
resistance flange of sorts) to which the underlever is attached is
*completely* glued in place (a few screws that must have clamped the top
and bottom pieces together were still in place), so the only thing to do
was to make slices on either side of the place where the underlever met
the "flange rail."  I then chiseled out the wood between the slices and
fitted a new piece of wood to glue into the gap I created.  After the glue
dried in the underlever, I removed the clamp, applied fresh glue to the
"tongue" and set the underlever in place on the tray with the "tongue"
hanging out of the backside of the tray.  The replacement piece of wood
was put into place and clamped, but just before tightening the clamp, I
gave the "tongue" a tug so that the underlever was snug against the tray
with no side-to-side play.

I think this'll do the trick.

Ron Torrella
School of Music         ** STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY **
University of Illinois