List - I've got a question concerning a player piano rebuild that I'm hoping those with more experience can give an opinion on. Back in the 70's and early 80's I rebuilt a number of player actions, but I've since tried to steer clear, and leave the work to others with more expertise than myself. Recently, however, after some arm twisting, I consented to take a player into the shop. The piano work is done, and I now need to tackle the player action. Here's my question. With the past rebuilds, I've decided that the gluing method that I used to attach the bellows to the decks has not proved as tight as I would like. I used hot animal hide glue, and clamped the bellows with Jiffy clamps overnight. But now, 20 or 30 years later, I don't think the seals are completely tight. Would I see an improvement if I were to preheat one or the other of the wood surfaces? I've always wondered if the glue might have gelled prematurely upon contacting the cold wood? Or, would I be better off to put in an automotive type gasket material, and use Titebond? I want a bond that is able to be torn back apart down the road, if another rebuilder does the whole thing over again in some distant year. Not likely, I realize, but I myself re-redid a couple of rebuilds where the previous rebuilder had glued the bellows directly to the decks with woodworking glue. On one such pianos I had to remake the entire set of bellows from scratch - a job that definitely wasn't figured into the estimate! Duaine, would you have an opinion on this? What is the method you prefer? Thanks, Chuck -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110130/ce4b5a6c/attachment.htm>
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