Glue Summary was Reblitz: Glue pots vs glue sticks

[Alan R. Barnard]

Aliphatic glue, White: The parent for this type of glue is doubtlessly Borden's white glue. Borden's is a very strong glue which penetrates wood well BUT... don't use it anywhere in a piano, IMH(?)O. It is nearly impossible to undo or remove later. A second generation of such glues contains fillers which render them somewhat "sandable." Regardless of the claims, none are truly sandable since their binder is rubbery. More expensive is not better. The hobby store brands like Pica's "Gluit" and others are expensive and not very sandable. 
Aliphatic glue, Yellow: Borden's yellow woodworkers' glue is strong, inexpensive, and as sandable as any I have found. This is a much better glue for wood to wood. "Titebond" is just as good.
PVC-E: Non-toxic, no odor, easy to use, dries fairly fast. Also dries rubbery but is excellent for plastic keytops and for gluing felt to metal or wood (hide glue is much preferred for key bushings and flange center bushings except for emergency field repairs in less-than-top-quality pianos).
None of the above can survive being frozen, nor do they store well indefinitely.
Glue pots... for serious SHOP use, hide glue crystals. Hide glue has been used for woodworking and in pianos since Moses was in office. It is strong, fairly easy to work with (there are tricks to learn), and can be removed when necessary. Crystals store well if kept very dry; hydrated glue does not. It should not be reheated and used except in non-critical applications as it loses strength. It can get moldy and kinda stinks until it dries.
Glue sticks? The only ones I know of are for paper-to-paper.
CA -- much has been written about this. Ultra-thin can restore tuneability to a worn pinblock and penetrate thin cracks to stabilize bridges. Thicker CA can be used to attach loose ivories in the field (careful you don't attach yourself to the piano - DAMHIK) and to fill thicker cracks, glue unmolded hammerheads back on (emergency and/or cheap-piano repair, obviously)
There are other glues like Gorilla Glue that are just terrific but take too long to set, require clamping that's hard to do on some piano repairs, etc., so I don't use any of them
Hope it helps.
Alan Barnard
Salem, MO
Joshua 24:15






Original message
From: KeyKat88 at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Received: 01/23/2007 8:46:32 AM
Subject: Reblitz: Glue pots vs glue sticks


Greetings, 
 
      Reading Reblitz"s book, he mentions heated glue pots! Wow! To carry such a monstrostity in your car trunk! I was wondering if craft glue sticks are the same thing; Are they? Also, what is aliphatic glue?
 
Thanks 
Julia Gottshall
REading, PA
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