[pianotech] Evil glue

[Ron Nossaman]

I'm doing a belly job on a piano that was sort of rebuilt once before. 
The abused agraffes I posted earlier came from this piano too, as did 
the mystery plate finish that proved to be way more problematic than it 
should have been.

Today's rant is on glue choice - again. I continually find some random 
glue from Hell that I wouldn't even have in the shop arbitrarily used 
for piano work. The issue this time was getting felt off the bottom of 
the damper guide rail. This lowest of all technical requirement 
refelting resisted all Q&D efforts at scraping and chiseling. I didn't 
try heat, because by then I was already miffed at wasting unnecessary 
time on something this dumb already, so I took it back to the belt 
sander I'd used to take the mystery stain and "patina" off the rest of 
the guide rails. Pictured, is the result. A perfectly good and usable 
belt rendered into trash, and it still took considerable time to melt 
the stuff off with the immediately ruined belt. People, please think 
about your choice of glues for piano work. There are choices available 
that will work at least as well as the Gonzo Craft Glue and Termite 
Repellent you for some untelligible reason actually purchased and used 
in pianos, that are more rationally dealt with by the next guy. If 
you're making permanent changes, by all means epoxy the sucker in, but 
refelting the underside of the damper guide rails? Jeez, Cosmo, some 
signs of intelligent life please.

I haven't yet gotten to stripping off the dampers, but I expect to find 
the same Name on Request Acky Pucky used there, and can hardly wait.

Now, thanks in advance (and hopeful avoidance), but I already know about 
soaking, boiling, heat application with a heat gun or iron (hot 
meteorite, etc), surfactants like alcohol, detergent, and the ever 
popular wallpaper remover, so I'm not looking for a list of 
recommendations for dealing with something you can't see and are 
guessing about. What I'm hoping against all hope for is that at least 
someone somewhere out there will read this and miraculously rethink his 
choice of glues for stuff like this. Hot hide is, naturally, the first 
choice. Second would be something else that dries hard so can be easily 
scraped off, like the Titebond molding and trim glue, Assembly 65, or 
Bolduc. PVCE does NOT qualify. Give the next guy some consideration, 
since he probably won't know who you are or where you live and can't 
hunt you down and feed you the ruined sanding belt. Since he likely 
can't extract vengeance on you, leave him pleasantly surprised. It's 
only reasonable, honorable, and fair.

Ron N
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