John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania asks:

> Unless I become a virtuoso glue painter, how can I avoid getting
> glue on the hinge during this last step?

The last step in gluing up the key pneumatics is folding the pneumatic
cloth over the hinge.  I usually cover the three sides of the boards
with the cloth and trim the edges before the hot hide glue becomes too
hard to trim.  I then put the pneumatics to the side, hinge end unglued
for a day to make sure that any glue that might have squeezed out
inside the pneumatic is completely dry.

To glue the hinge side cloth down, first use a rubber band to hold the
pneumatic closed.  Make sure that the cloth end tabs are trimmed so
they overlap at the hinge area.  This next step must be done as quickly
as possible so that the hot hide glue doesn't have enough time to
gel.  Take a brush and load it with hot hide glue.  Lightly scrape most
of the glue off of the brush with the edge of your glue pot.

Now quickly transfer the glue to the end of each board, making sure not
to get any glue onto the hinge area.  This isn't very hard to do.  Drop
one of the cloth tabs down onto the hinge and then pull it up again.
You will notice that the glue will be pulled up with the cloth.  There
should be an unglued area on the cloth where the glue didn't transfer
because of not putting glue on the center of the hinge area.  If this
gap is not there, then you have used too much glue or the glue is too
thick.

Now take the other tab (the clean one) and drop it down into the glue
on the hinge.  Take the first tab (the one with the glue) and press it
down over the other tab and the gluing is complete.  Trim the excess
cloth off the top and bottom of the boards and put pressure on the
hinge area until the glue sets.  Using waxed paper here helps keep the
cloth from sticking to any foam rubber or your work surface.  I have
a special jig that will put pressure on about eight pneumatics at the
same time while the glue dries.

If for some reason the glue gets into the hinge area, just mark the
pneumatic with a small X somewhere so you can identify it later so it
can be glued on either end of the stack where the notes never get
played.  Don't take off the rubber bands until about 10-15 minutes.

Gluing the hinges this way saves a lot of time, even though your first
thought might be that the cloth isn't completely glued at the hinge
area and air might leak across this unglued area.  If this bothers you,
go ahead and run a small strip of glue across the area where the cloth
folds over itself.

And don't use the hide glue [sold] in a bottle -- hot hide glue works
better for gluing cloth to the wood.

Pete Knobloch
Tempe, Arizona, USA