The Rush To Use CA Every time On Everything

[Michael Magness]

I'm in my 38th year in this business and got the idea to go into it from a
stepfather who's still a good friend who's in his 65th year.
I use CA glue on occasion when it's warranted, to repair the odd cracked
flange, loose hammer on the grand I'm tuning for a concert with a curtain
less than 2 hours from then. I have also used it to tighten the tuning pins
in pianos that were marginally tunable or less. I don't use it to re-attach
every loose hammer I run across, repair cracked keys, glue soundboards back
to ribs or the myriad of other uses I've seen and read about here. Much of
piano work is about a measured, careful, studied craft. I find very little
of any of those things apply to a CA repair.
When I was preparing a Kawai GS-60 for a George Winston concert I discovered
17 loose hammers.
The piano is housed onstage in a Student Union and although it had a
Dampp-Caser system, undercover and regular cover. The Dampp-Chaser hadn't
been used for over a year, the cover hadn't been on the piano for at least
that long. I used a program from a previous function in the hall to pour out
a puddle of Titebond then removed all of the hammers I'd marked and cleaned
the old glue from the shank hole. I then did the same with the shanks then
using my now tacky Titebond re-glued them. Several of the holes were much
larger than the shanks so the tacky glue helped to fill the gap nicely. The
gaps in over half were too large for CA, even the thick CA to have filled, I
fear.

I have talked with others who seem shocked that I don't use it(CA) more but
it isn't reversible and it sets too fast in many cases, no working time. I
don't get things in perfect alignment everytime, first time! Apparantly
there are those who are perfect out there or they are willing to settle for
good enough in the interest of saving a few minutes, I know not which. I
just know when I reach for my glue bottle it's the one that says Titebond
90% of the time.


Life is like a piano what you get out of it depends on how you play it!


Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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