Something's wrong with the List: nobody's mentioned the 4-letter
"G" word for a week!  Let me help...

What is the proper glue to fasten wooden pipes to the wind chest or
pipe stand in "monkey-grinder" organs?  The pipes have tapered wooden
stems that fit into matching holes in the chest, where they are secured
with glue.  (In a portable organ this is safer than the gravity system
with toe boards used in larger organs).

The dried glue looks like Elmer's white glue [casein glue], but seems
softer, and I would surely hope that Raffin and Deleika have used
something that is easier to break loose or soak out than Elmer's.

I'm asking for two reasons: in case I ever need to dismount the pipes in
my newer grind organs, and also to use the proper glue when rebuilding
my Dutch mini-pierement.  Someone had previously glued its pipes with
something frightfully close to Elmer's, and then broken the glue joints
loose, leaving some cracked pipe stems and a thick coating of glue on the
stems and the chest holes.

I'd like to think that organ builders choose a glue for ease of removing
a pipe when the pipe needs repair or re-voicing.  Something in between
white glue and rubber cement.  Anyone know?

(I had the "klijn-pierement" on display at the Mart at Sandusky, but
unfortunately I chose not to dash through the downpour a third time to get
the box of pipes and music books.  The best educated guesses were that it
was a do-it-yourself home project by a Dutchman shortly after World War
II.   Why he built a 33-key frame and shaved the top and bottom notes off
the 35-note books will remain a mystery till I die, and look him up in
Hell and ask.)

Mike Knudsen