NEVER should anyone ever use contact cement on keytops. You have learned first hand that they fall off in 5 years more or less. I learned from an old tuner to melt spare keytops in Acetone and put it in a squeeze bottle. I keep putting key plastic in until it is the thickness of heavy cream. Using this I have never had any come off at any age. Been using it for about 15 years. Unless you can get the old cement off the tops and keys, you may have to take off the whole set and replace it. Otherwise you will have several more to do each time you tune and they will think poorly of you because you just fixed those keys and now another one has dropped off. Major tip: Never mix glues because a chemical reaction causes them to fall off or turn to an emulsion and fall off. Remove all previous glues before repairing with other glues. D.L. Bullock St. Louis www.thepianoworld.com <http://www.thepianoworld.com> Put the worlds greatest healer to work for WHATEVER health problem you may have----YOUR OWN IMMUNE SYSTEM. Your body is capable of healing EVERY disease if you give it the right fuel. Visit http://www.mannapages.com/dlbullock to learn how to get the right fuel. Also www.glycoscience.org <http://www.glycoscience.org/> -----Original Message----- From: Clyde Hollinger [mailto:cedel@supernet.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 4:52 AM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: plastic keytop glue Friends, I hope you can help me with this problem. I service on old upright piano for which a previous technician installed new plastic keytops, probably a couple decades ago. They keep coming off; nearly every one has come off at least once. I used to use Dryburgh superglue, but they began coming off again, so I switched to Weldwood contact cement, and that nearly always does okay for me, but not on this piano. This has been a chronic problem for years. Do you have a never-fail suggestion for some other glue? I'll be seeing this piano again the end of next week. Preferably something that sets up soon enough so I can do the repair, then tune the piano, or the other way around, and that's locally available. I like to stay away from glues so dark that they show through the plastic. It's been a while since I've been on this list. I'm doing well and hope you are the same. I'm swamped with piano work, like probably everyone else this time of year. Merry Christmas, Clyde Hollinger, RPT Lititz, PA, USA
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