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<DIV>In a message dated 1/2/2004 6:16:40 PM Pacific Standard Time, rstrang@p=
a.inter.net writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue =
2px solid"><FONT face=Arial>Hello, list,<BR> Once again, I lea=
rned a big lesson the very hard way, so I thought I'd<BR>share my grief with=
you all.<BR> I worked on an old player upright last night. It w=
as a 1907 variety, but<BR>someone in California had rebuilt it very well. Wh=
y? Who knows? But it was<BR>in very good shape, and close to pitch.<BR> =
; All the ivory keytops, the squares, were coming off. about 15 had be=
en<BR>off for quite some time, but the customer had saved them and gave them=
to me<BR>to glue back on. I also gave a tug at all the rest that had not co=
me off yet<BR>and found that most of them were loose. I got out my trusty PV=
C-E glue and<BR>proceeded to glue them all back on.<BR> My big m=
istake? The glue paints on very white and pretty, and I took it<BR>for grant=
ed that it would dry that way and would hide the finger prints and<BR>other =
imperfections that were on the top of the keys that had not had a<BR>keytop =
on for a while. When I started taking the rubber bands off and<BR>reinstalli=
ng the keys, I got a big surprise. PVC-E glue dries perfectly<BR>clear, leav=
ing all imperfections glaring through the keytop which were all<BR>very well=
glued on now. The job looks terrible, even though there are now<BR>keytops =
installed which I'm sure feel very much better than the key did<BR>without t=
he ivory. Even so, it is very obvious which keys had been bare for<BR>a whil=
e. Should have I used another white glue, such as Titebond? I have<BR>always=
stayed away from the regular white glues for keytops. Anyway, a word<BR>to =
the wise. Don't do what I did. If you are going to use PVC-E glue for<BR>ivo=
ry keytops, make sure the keytop surface is WHITE before gluing. Lesson<BR>l=
earned.<BR><BR>Richard</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000040> <FONT size=
=3> Richard</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000040 size=3> &nb=
sp; You missed a perfect oppurtunity to use hot hide with glue whiting which=
would have give an invisible repair. This is how they were orginally glued =
on & any residual glue on the keys or ivory would have been nicely react=
ivated when th hot hide went on.this process does require the brass plates &=
amp; clamps but in my mind is the best of repairs.To undo what has happened =
now may not be possible but heating with a white wwet linen to get the glue =
undone may work. Then scrape & clean & see what happens</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000040 size=3> Dale</FO=
NT></DIV></BODY></HTML>