Another way of actually softening the hot hide glue enough to pull the hammers off by hand without adding moisture is to stick the molding/shank joint into hot sand. Put dry sand in an old sauce pan, heat it on a hot plate on medium. Stirr occasionally. (all very scientific). The glue softens, and the hammer can be pulled off by hand (wear a glove - hot). No pliers needed - that is how soft the glue gets. But if you wait too long, the glue gets hard and brittle again. I suppose there is ambient moisture in the sand and also in the glue, which is hygroscopic. But hey - no moisture added. And no glue joint that gets broken. Jurgen Goering Piano Forte Supply (250) 754-2440 info at pianofortesupply.com http://www.pianofortesupply.com On Oct 26, 2007, at 18:34, David Love wrote: > I can assure you that I’ve been removing them that way for about 30 > years without introducing any moisture. Ungar Heat Gun or smaller > Weller Gun, heat the joint, pop them off with a pair of removing > pliers. I can usually heat up an entire section at time and go > through and remove them, i.e., it’s not necessary to do them one at a > time. Interestingly, as the joint cools it becomes more difficult > suggesting the glue does indeed respond to heat alone. There is > humidity in the air, of course. Whether the hygroscopic properties of > the glue itself cause it to absorb some moisture from the air which is > activated by the heat, I don’t know. Even if that’s the case, rarely > do we work in zero humidity situations. But, to be sure, they can be > removed with the application of dry heat. No illusion here. Try it. > David Love > Ron Nossaman wrote: > > I suspected that's what you were talking about. This is a far cry > from the original premise that you can heat dry hide glue and adjust > the hammers without breaking the joint. I've done what you're > describing too, and my take is that the dry heat makes the glue more > brittle, and the joint more easily broken with shock or pressure. It's > a different thing. Ron N -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2697 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20071026/29e79840/attachment.bin
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