Enlightenment

[Susan Kline]

At 07:19 AM 09/26/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Susan
>I've tried CA for regluing ivory and found the joint to fail most of the
>time. I take care to clean the ivory and keystick, but usually find that
>repair has failed. I don't wet either piece with anything in the cleaning
>process, just scrape the surfaces and wipe off with a clean rag before
>applying the CA. What am I missing?
>
>Paul Chick

Dampness, probably. You see, CA glue wants to bond and polymerize like
crazy. <grin> The only thing that keeps it liquid is an inhibitor, which
is an acid, and it's very powerful, because there is only a tiny trace
of it. It breaks down in contact with water, and it only takes a small
amount of water, such as we would have in a normally humid Oregon day.
It's possible that you tried to use it during a Minnesota winter, and
the air was just too dry.

Try either cleaning the keystick with a damp rag, or scrape it clean,
but then smear a very thin layer of Elmer's glue on it. Put some dots
of CA glue on the ivory, spread it into a layer (quickly!) with a
screwdriver, and put it in place. If you use too much CA glue it will
squeeze out and get onto your fingers. (Heck, it'll get onto your
fingers anyway.) At that point, as you press the ivory down you'll
leave a nice vivid CA fingerprint on the ivory, which you will
then need to use acetone to remove. (I've tried scraping and 600
sandpaper: not very effective.) Keep this squeeze-out off the fronts,
in particular, since they are usually melted by CA glue, and by
acetone as well.

If you have a decent brand of CA glue (I like Loctite's QuikTite)
and follow this procedure, it should bond like mad, and I've never
had one come off again. Give it a try and tell us how it goes.

Put the Elmer's on the keystick because waterbased glues can warp
ivory and because the CA won't wick into ivory. In general, if
gluing a hard and a soft surface together, put the CA on the hard
surface and the Elmer's on the porous one. If the two surfaces are
both soft (like gluing cloth to cloth) put the Elmer's on both,
squeeze together to spread it, add a small amount of CA to one
or the other, and IMMEDIATELY press together again. The Elmer's
will prevent the CA from soaking in too fast. As soon as the CA
hits the Elmer's it bonds with great enthusiasm, generating heat
and a few bubbles. That is, the squeeze-out is clotted and a little
foamy.

Be sure your fingers are not wet with the Elmer's when handling
the CA glue. If I use CA glue alone, and stick my fingers together,
I can pull them apart, just leaving a thin layer of skin behind.
But one day when I had a trace of white glue on my fingers, the
CA glued them together so firmly that I had to go to the car to
get the acetone so that I could dissolve the bond. It took quite
a bit of acetone and a little struggling, even so, to get the
stuff to let go.

If using CA and Elmer's to glue on rubber buttons, be sure not to
use too much, and use great care in cleaning it up. If you smear
the squeeze-out across a piano case, it'll look terrible and is
nearly impossible to remove. (Don't ask ...)

Susan