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4th April 2014, 10:34 AM #1Senior Member
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Question on glue to repairing Piano key board
I have a question on what glue one should consider to use to carry out minor repair to piano key board. My problem is that one of the black keys on our 60 year old piano has come unstuck and fallen off and needs regluing. It would appear that it would have been originally glued with animal glue.
I look forward to any advise on carrying out this repair.
Cheers Malcolm Eaton
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4th April 2014, 11:51 AM #2GOLD MEMBER
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My brother-in-law repairs and tunes pianos but unfortunately he is away at the moment. If you do not get an answer before he is back in 2 weeks, I will ask him.
Tom
"It's good enough" is low aim
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14th April 2014, 10:20 AM #3Senior Member
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14th April 2014, 06:56 PM #4
I've had little experience with piano repairs beyond re-gluing loose veneers, however I've had assorted adventures with segmenting and inlays using ebony, ivory, bone, plastic etc. in my woodwork. Based on this, here's a few suggestions:
- Rubbing the joint with PVA should work fine for the black keys, if ebony or stained timber... but definitely not recommended for the white, if real bone or ivory.
- For plastic keytops, a contact cement is probably better.
- However, given what you say, hide glue would be my preference IF that was what was used originally. It makes for simpler future k/b repairs and helps maintain the value.
Mind you, I'd also suggest waiting on BIL's advice if you really value the piano.
- Andy Mc
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14th April 2014, 07:59 PM #5
A second thumbs up for hide glue. If the broken bits are easily removable, you may be able to re-bond with no new glue simply by heating the old glue with steam from a kettle till it goes sticky again.
If you don't want to go to the trouble of buying some hide glue, pop down to the shops and buy some gelatine powder.
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luth...tchenglue.html
Preparation: roughly scrape off any big lumps on the bits to be fixed, and warm them over a kettle to soften whatever remains on there a little. Squidge on some new glue, hold it in place (lightly) and wait till it cools. Fixed for another 60 years (hopefully).
Personally, I wouldn't use anything but hide glue, if that's what it was originally glued with (hide glue is the only glue that is easy to rework, and it's the only glue that needs no surface preparation to reglue).
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16th April 2014, 02:08 PM #6GOLD MEMBER
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Malcolm
I have spoken to my BIL and he uses Aquadhere. However, that might be sacrilege to the purists.
Hope that helpsTom
"It's good enough" is low aim
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16th April 2014, 03:00 PM #7GOLD MEMBER
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Please don't use Aquadhere or any other modern adhesive
It is not really just for the purists, it is also for those who want a good job and to retain the value of their items. Using a PVA or other modern adhesive is often counter productive. They do not bond well to the animal glue and also are not easily reversible so if you make a mistake or it moves a bit you are 'unstuck' as in 'in a mess' and have damaged the value of the piano/other antique. As others have said here, the great thing about animal glue is that a bit of steam or hot water will soften it and you can often just re-join the pieces. If there is a lot of dirt or mould in the glue then you do need to scrape it back/dissolve it off with some warm water on a cloth but you only need to do the minimum to clean up the joint, then apply a little more animal glue and the new glue bonds well to the old and you have a great fix. I use the original pearl hide glue in a glue pot but you can buy ready-made hide glues. U-Beaut sell Pearl Glue, and I have seen a bottle of ready made Titebond liquid hide glue at Carba-tec ($14.00). Look at their on-line catalogues. I have never used the Titebond product but it sounds ideal for your needs.
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16th April 2014, 03:29 PM #8
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20th April 2014, 04:37 PM #9SENIOR MEMBER
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