Currently I am rebuilding a Wurlitzer player piano.  This model had
the individual unit valves.  These are beautifully designed valves and
normally easy to restore and service.  The previous restorer used some
sort of rubbery type glue to seal every thing.

I have scraped, peeled, and tried to cut this stuff off.  I have tried
various chemicals to cut this rubbery glue and, no matter what approach
I use, it is a mess.  What should have been an easy straightforward
restoration job has turned into a time-consuming mess because someone
used this rubbery glue.  It would have been so much better had the
restorer used shellac like the original manufacturer.

We all have skeletons in our closet and now is a good time to start
by not adding to the closet.  Throw away the rubbery plastic glue that
someone in the past told you would seal this and that in a player
piano.  Do not use cork gaskets when leather works so well.  Please
use only hot hide glue to glue pneumatics back on their deck rails.

Yellow glue and the rubbery type glue make a mess.  Shellac makes
a great sealer.  If you don't have the book by Arthur Reblitz,
"Rebuilding the Player Piano", then get a copy.  Try to make your
rebuild a restoration job and not just a run-of-the-mill rebuild.

If you don't have time to do the job right the first time then when
are you going to have time to do the job right the second time.

Don Teach