CA gluing Grand pinblocks & Uprights My take on it

[Susan Kline]

At 10:29 PM 7/27/2002 -0700, Joe wrote:
>On a final note, I personally do not like CA glue for anything other than
>temporary repair, because I know that it will fail, eventually.

Hi, Joe. I think that you know more than I know -- I've used CA glue
here, there, and many other places, always just a few drops, sometimes
with white glue and sometimes plain. No call-backs or signs of failure
on return visits, and I've been using the stuff for about 15 years so
far, though I left the earliest examples behind when I left California.
(I used the two-glue process six or seven years before I told everyone
else about it, on this very list, and in the Journal.)

I suppose it does matter just what you are trying to do with the stuff.
I certainly wouldn't trust it to fix rim delaminations or a pinblock
separation in a 1098, just by pouring a few bottles in.

As for only using it on cheap or near-totalled pianos -- Confession Time.
The Newport Arts Center was given a Steinway A which has lived in South
Carolina. Some soundboard cracks, and marginally loose pins. I decided
that they didn't have the money to pay for a new soundboard and/or pinblock,
and the cracks didn't seem to be buzzing or progressing. I just replaced
the verdigris-ed parts and carried on.

It started being used for two piano concerts, and played heavily. Unisons
were troublesome in the mid-treble, especially a few in the first capo.
After years of putting up with it, and just trying to bang in the tuning
a lot harder, to no avail at all ... I gave up and reached for the CA.

Feeling that if a little is good, less is better yet, I slipped just two
or three drops each into the well around the tuning pins, only on notes which
showed lousy unisons -- all of three or so. I was prepared to do this
over and over, but once did the trick. The unisons just aren't bad
enough to embarrass me any more. I can't tell which notes I treated,
because they seem just like the others.

I also put a little CA around the A0 tuning pin of an S&S A in much better
condition. Just the lowest pin wouldn't hold -- maybe too close to
a plate screw. It worked there, too, with just one application.

I really don't see the harm. The amount is so small, and the results
so good.

Susan