Durham's Rock Hard Soundboard Putty

[Farrell]

Do you know that the material is "Durham's Rock Hard Soundboard Putty" - whatever that is? Perhaps it is a properly applied epoxy? Proper epoxy, properly applied can make for a good repair. The only question then would be whether repair is a good way to go!

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Erwinspiano@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: Durham's Rock Hard Soundboard Putty


> In a message dated 6/27/2002 11:42:54 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
> macman@pathfinder.dnsalias.com writes:
> 
> 
> > Subj:Durham's Rock Hard Soundboard Putty 
> > Date:6/27/2002 11:42:54 AM Pacific Standard Time
> > From:<A HREF="mailto:macman@pathfinder.dnsalias.com">macman@pathfinder.dnsalias.com</A>
> > Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>
> > To:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>
> > Sent from the Internet 
> > 
> >     Tyler
> 
> 
>     Durhams rock hard putty is a wonderful dent and gap filler for smoothing 
> out small imperfections  on the inner rim glue joint before gluing in a new 
> board etc. It sands well but it has no structural strength or glue strength 
> and can be quite brittle.
>   I can hear those cut corners from here
>    >>>>>>>>>>>Dale Erwin>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
> 
> > 
> > I was looking at a 5'-ish 1928 Chickering grand, rebuilt, the other 
> > day. New hammers, strings, keytops refinished, et cetera and so on. 
> > Plays very nicely. I like it.
> > 
> > The bridges have very small repaired cracks, seemingly well-done, and 
> > so that settles whether or not it is a new soundboard... 
> > 
> > Looking at the soundboard from the underside, it appears that the 
> > rebuilder decided it was in good enough condition to not even require 
> > repair. There are a few (around 4) narrow cracks here and there, no 
> > sign of any shimming or anything similar.
> > 
> > Returning to the top of the piano, it seems that the cracks have been 
> > filled in from the top with some sort of filler putty... What is 
> > this? I've never heard recommendation for any procedure like this 
> > before. Wouldn't putting putty in the cracks just encourage them to 
> > get bigger but not smaller, or does the putty somehow "glue" the 
> > cracked pieces together?
> > 
> > The putty in the soundboard seems to smack of corners cut, which goes 
> > against the rest of the piano's good workmanship.
> > 
> > Anybody know anything about doing this?
> > 
> > -Tyler Smith
> 
>