Gluing Ivory with CA Glue

[Mike and Jane Spalding]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Alan R. Barnard <mathstar@salemnet.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 4:39 PM
Subject: Re: Gluing Ivory with CA Glue


> Anyone still messing with wafers, clamps, etc?
> 
Yes, wafers and clamps is my preferred method.  If I have the action out and stack off for other reasons already, there's no question, i use the wafers and clamps.  Keep a couple of brass plates in the glue pot (in the water bath, not in the hide glue!).  Prep the surfaces, trim the wafer to size, soak the wafer in cold water for 30 seconds, assemble, and clamp.  It's as fast as any other method - the surface prep of the keystick and ivory is the time consuming part, regardless of the gluing method.  The only time I'll use CA is for in-home Q&D where the time to disassemble is not warranted.  In this case, I will warn that CA doesn't necessarily last forever, and if the ivory comes off again we will need to do a more expensive repair next time.

regards,

Mike Spalding, RPT