The main complaint about CA glues is they seem to have a life span of 3 to 5 years. Actually what happens is they get brittle. A tap with a hammer or drop it lightly and the glue turns like a tempered glass window. Dust. This is why it is not recommended to use CA glue to fill or span gaps. The least gap, the least amount of glue = the stronger joint, the longest life span. Keith R ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Nereson" <dnereson@dimensional.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 11:56 PM Subject: loose pedal lyres > What do you guys and gals do with loose pedal boxes, besides > putting a book underneath (just kidding)? I've always taken the lyre to the > shop, drilled out the wedges (much drilling with different size bits at > various angles, followed by careful chiseling and gouging) until it will > knock apart with a rubber mallet, then sand, chisel, scrape off as much old > glue as possible to get maximum bare wood exposure (but trying not to reduce > the dimensions of the tenons or expand the holes too much), then glue the > whole thing together and insert new hardwood wedges (which I usually have to > make myself, axe and hammer handle wedges being too small -- does anybody > sell bags of pre-cut wedges for piano lyres?), then clamp the whole assembly > overnight, then the next day, trim the ends of the wedges, clean up and do > minor touch-up -- quite time consuming. One tech I know doesn't > bother -- he just CA-glues the heck out of it and says he's never had a > problem, but I don't trust it to last over the years. If you do it the > long way, do you pound the wedges in while you're glueing the posts to the > top block and pedal box, or do you wait until the assembly has dried, then > pound the wedges in last? > With some Asian pianos, loose lyre parts produce "polyester squeak", > where two polished surfaces squeak against each other. I've tried to > chisel, sand, scrape the polyester away so I can glue bare wood to bare > wood, but polyester and any type of glue, for that matter, really soaks into > the grain and makes the wood more like a hard plastic. The pedal box > sometimes isn't entirely of wood -- there can be a plastic insert (mortise) > where the tenon enters the pedal box but you can't see it because the > polyester finish hides it. It doesn't chisel, sand, or scrape without > chipping or breaking or sending a crack across the whole top of the pedal > box. I guess CA would work here, but does it hold? Will it last? > > --David Nereson, RPT, Denver > >
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