sticky stuff that wicks unless sized

[Richard Moody]

I consider Titebond and the old Elmer's white glue to act the same as far
as gluing fabrics or felt.
These must be sized first!!   To size (sp?) a fabric or felt, a thin coat
of glue must be applied to the side to be glued, and allowed to dry.  This
can be accomplished by laying a line of glue at the beginning of the piece
and drawing it over the rest of the surface with the edge of a knife. Thus
a thin layer of glue remains. When it is dry, THEN it is glued in the
regular manner.  
This sized coating prevents  water from the glue  entering into the fabric
or felt (and drawing the glue with it) and causing all sorts of
mischevious conditions, and at the same time presents a surface on the
fabric that will "take" the glue  (and not "soak up the glue") in a manner
that will properly adhere it to the desired surface.  If done this way, no
failure should be expected execpt through accidents.   
	I believe this procedure is recomended for hide glue to prevent "soak
through" caused by the pressure from the bushing wedges when rebushing
keys. (Pressure on the fabric causes  moisture from the glue to "wick"
through at an accelerated rate)(like making mud pies) 

Richard Mudpy
----------
> From: Stephen Birkett <birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: sticky stuff
> Date: Thursday, July 30, 1998 9:40 PM

> 
> One serious question...I would be interested to know if anyone does use
> titebond glues for felt strips. My experience with this from my pre-hide
> glue days, is the felt turns nasty (especially thin felts, like on the
> music desk, which soak up the glue), but they do eventually bond
> permanently....what about removing to replace the felt later once it
wears
> out?...big mess of scraping needed, instead of a quick steam.  And I
never
> really liked the appearance of the felt once the glue dries. But maybe I
> was using it incorrectly.