Many thanks to both Jon Page and Jack Hamilton and the many other contributors who suggested ideas on how to clamp the soundboard for gluing. This was a weird one as this small Howard grand had multiple cracks meandering in and out under the long bridge.Jon's "I" beam and clamps was just the trick I needed. I found it very controllable albeit a touch dicey to set up. Perhaps next time I can afford to get some air rams or something. (Forgive me, I just came back from a factory trip to Mason and Hamlin and they had a really cool set up to glue down bridges and such. It was like a go bar deck but the go bars were actually air rams which had strong magnets on one end to suspend them anywhere necessary on the iron plate above for exactly locating the ram above the part to be glued. VERY COOL! ) I'm unsure as yet about the Gorilla glue recommended by Jack Hamilton as I saw a fair amount of void in the glue joints once it was dried. Perhaps the foaming nature of the glue as it dries created these tiny voids but I'm not sure I like that result. I'm quite sure it's strong enough, I just don't like seeing the voids no matter how small they are. I thought about hide glue with Urea but I didn't have any urea and was pretty sure that I couldn't set up the clamping that fast. Epoxy would have been my other choice but I used the last of it making the "I" beams and didn't have a chance to run out and get any more. Anyway, the repair was effectively made and I thank each of you who contributed to it's success! Best, Greg Newell Greg Newell Greg's piano Forté mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
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