At 11:00 PM +0000 13/2/02, Phillip L Ford wrote: >John, >Have you found glue to be necessary? I usually install damper guide rail >bushings with no glue. I trim flush on the top of the guide rail and leave >a tail on the bottom. I've not had a problem with them coming out. I've done it both ways and, as you say they're not going to fall out if there's no glue. Most European grands were done with glue as I described and the advantage of the glue is that with the "needle-ironing" you get great evenness; any traces of glue in the holes is softened and integrated with the new glue, so that when you iron, you're pressing the cloth against the very wood. I like to get a nice even ring of glue as you get on a well-hung hammer head; or else I omit the glue altogether -- depending on the phase of the moon! Too many pianos have holes that are too small in the guides. A wonderful Lipp grand I'm slowly working on at the moment between pressing jobs has very nice guides with a ring of thin bushing cloth surrounding an inner ring of 1.8mm red box-cloth. These guides will never need replacing and will never squeak or knock. JD
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