Gluing felt to moldings

[Steve Blasyak]

Hey Now,

I never had much luck with CA glue on felt......it seemed to soak in too fast. I will try the thick stuff again though if the oportunity presents itself. I like the dental floss idea.

Steve


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dean May 
To: Pianotech List
Sent: 1/4/2007 6:18:30 AM 
Subject: RE: Gluing felt to moldings


William, 
 
Here is an account I posted a couple of years ago of a quick and dirty field repair.
 
I was working on a pso spinet yesterday with multiple problems for a family with a limited budget. One hammer had lost the felt and about ten others had come apart on one side. I used Goop, needle nose vice grips and dental floss. I pulled the loose felts the rest of the way off to get a good coating of glue. I held the glued felt in place with the needle nose vice grips, clamping the ends of the felt from the shank end of the molding. This left the head of the hammer open so I could wrap the dental floss around it.
I pulled out about 20 inches of dental loss and tied a loop in one end to form a lasso, leaving a good 3-4 inches of the short end of the floss sticking out of the loop's knot. This gave me something to tie off against later. The beauty of doing the lasso is that it gives you the first loop around the felt without a knot, and it is self tightening. After pulling the first loop down tight, it stayed tight while I wrapped 4 more loops around the felt. Then I tied it off and went to the next hammer.
 
Worried about the remaining hammers, I soaked CA glue into the tail end of the felt on top and bottom. It will be interesting to see if it holds.
 
One key in the treble section cracked at the dog leg. CA glue fixed it.
 
One corroded tenor string broke during tuning. I cut it off near the hitch pin and formed a loop on the unbroken leg of the wire to keep 2 strings on the note. It held.
 
Total time outside of tuning: about 45 minutes. Charges: $50.
 
Of course this is a piano that should be junked, but it is all the family can afford and it gives their girls something to practice on.
 
Dean
Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 
PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 
Terre Haute IN  47802



From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of William Benjamin
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 12:05 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Gluing felt to moldings
 
Greetings List,
 
Do any of you have suggestions for gluing hammer felts back down to the molding?  I have a customer that can’t afford new hammers and any suggestions would be appreatiated.  Are there any clamps that would work better or any ordinary ways of doing it.  I know that they are glued under stress in the factory, and if they are just glued down, they will sound dull.  Thanks in advance for any help.
 
William
 
 
PIANO BOUTIQUE
William Benjamin
Piano Tuner Extraordinaire
www.pianoboutique.biz
The tuner alone,
preserves the tone.
 
 
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