Greetings:

Here's a skill-testing question for the rebuilders:

I'm presently working on a Seeburg nickelodeon. Several of the
pneumatics, both large and small, are of the style whose ends are not
cloth-hinged - they look more like a lop-sided box than a wedge. The
boards do not meet at the narrow end. The cloth laps across the narrow
end, requiring a good flexible lap joint. (The problem is similar to
that of gluing up the pouch leather to the cloth on the opposed
pneumatics of the Duo-Art wind motor.) These "box" pneumatics all
function with the narrow ends held almost shut by metal hinging
mechanisms, but open enough to allow the extra fabric (folded inward)
to take the stress of repeated cycles. I guess the theory was that the
metal hinging would help the pneumatic to last longer than a standard
cloth-hinged type, given the severe duty cycles that nickelodeon parts
must endure.

My question:

What kind of glue is best suited for these lap joints?  Straight hot
ghide glue seems too brittle. I have never had very good luck with
rubber cement.  (The stuff goes gummy, or won't dry, etc.) I _have_
successfully used a PVC-E glue for this kind of joint, where I will
first allow the glue to dry on the separate surfaces, than iron or
otherwise heat them to stick together. But this is no good on pouch
leather. 90% of my gluing in the shop is done with hot hide glue. Is
there something I can add to the hide glue to increase its flexibility,
making it more suitable for this type of "working" lap joint?

Cheers

Doug Rhodes
Victoria, British Columbia
CANADA