Polylon
By Craig Brougher
The early attempts at coated nylon cloth weren't too good, as can be seen in Polylon. But that ended with the first batch (bright red coating on white cloth), and from there on, polyurethane coated nylon has been an excellent pneumatic covering. It will outwear anything else I know about, and glues very well with hot hide glue.
I recommend turning the coated side in on pneumatics and air motors. I have sent samples to Jacob Utzig of Hudson Industries who makes hot hide glue to test and evaluate the bond between polyurethane and wood with hide glue, and the finding was that it is excellent. There is a letter to this effect reproduced in The Orchestrion Builder's Manual.
As with everything else, I suggest always making a test first, to assure yourself that everything is correct, and that there is no mold releaser or anything coating the material that might ruin the job.
My test of a pneumatic bond is to seal 28 lbs of air pressure in the pneumatic with an air gun and rubber cork. Leaks or poor bonds show up with a pop and a whoosh! A good tight pneumatic holds it. Vacuum doesn't test the bonds on a pneumatic. It even seals what would otherwise be a leak sometimes. I have also seen covers that almost fell off by themselves, except for a well-glued open end, and worked pretty good as a vacuum pneumatic until they were discovered.
Craig Brougher
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(Message sent Wed 5 Feb 1997, 16:36:28 GMT, from time zone GMT.) |
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