•I use this method to separate parts and remove hide glue. I bought a low-budget pressure cooker to use as a steam source. 1. Hold glued area over the vent in the center until the glue has softened and separates. 2. When separated while hot scrape the residual glue off of the part. 3. The remainder ...

•I, too, agree with the ease of working with hide glue; I've been using it for 35 years. However, removing it in preparation for restoration was an extremely aggravating task until one day in utter frustration I applied brute force: a propane torch. To my utter surprise and delight, after passing a ...

•My favorite method for removing hide glue is wallpaper remover. You just add a little to a jar of water and sponge it on. The glue gels and can be scraped off (usually). Sanding and/or scraping is faster on small pneumatics. Philip Jamison

•A fellow technician asked me this question: How do you unhook the cable to the record strip on a Pianocorder on a grand piano so you can remove the action? He did not see a connector in the middle of the cable such as PianoDisc has. John Dewey jdent@soltec.net

•I have looked in the MMD Archives under Rolmonica and cannot find an answer to this. How does one remove the metal pins that actually hold the harmonica into the case from the sides? The pins do not appear to stick out far enough to grab with any type of tool. Thanks. Michael Pawelek

•Michael Pawelek asks about removing the holding pins in a Rolmonica. On my examples of the standard and chromatic Rolmonicas, the pins have small knob heads. Using a small, stiff, but sharp, knife blade (e.g. a pen-knife) I can ease the pins out enough to then grip them with pliers. Alternatively, ...

•Hello, I'm in the process of removing the player mechanism from the top part of a Kimball Electramatic player spinet. It has its spool mechanism on top of the bass tuning pins (top load). I was told it was manufactured in the 1960's. It would be very much appreciated if someone could tell me the pr...

•I recently received an inquiry asking me if I knew of any way to eliminate the musty smell from piano rolls and boxes. I did not have any good suggestions for him. I later received an email from him telling me what he had come up with. I thought I would share this with everyone here. Text of that e...

•Does any one have a method for removing old rubber tubing that has corroded to the nipples of the tracker bar? Herb Ziegler

•Just use a small soldering iron. Place the tip in the end of the little tubes and leave for 10 seconds. Then the rubber remnant will slip off cleanly. The tracker bar acts a huge heat sink and therefore the nipple will not become unsoldered. Good luck Nigel Perry

•This web site sells a special "Tracker Bard Puller & Cleaner Tool" for $12 that works great. I used it for the same job you are planning. http://www.balaams-ass.com/piano/player.htm Item # SH694 Charlie Morgan

•Hi All, Herb Ziegler asked about a method for removing 'corroded' tubing from a trackerbar. Hmmm; the only corroded tubing I've ever encountered was vinyl (or clear) tubing. All rubber or neoprene tubing just gets stiff or rock hard. Having retubed countless trackerbars, and knowing that it is ofte...

•What we did was to place the tracker bar in a kitchen oven that has accurate temp controls and cook it for awhile at maybe 300 degrees F. After removing everything from the oven the pieces of tubing are easy to remove -- they just slide right off and not much of any mess at all for cleanup. Wear so...

•Hello -- Long ago, as a teen, I worked for a wonderful player piano restorer, Johnny Green. He had been rebuilding and restoring players, reproducers and nickelodeons from the l950s-l980s. He had an easy method of removing old rubber from tracker bars. He took a piece of iron pipe, about 3" in diam...

•It seems to me that lacquer thinner might be a better substitute for gasoline in cleaning tracker bars, although gasoline and a match will do a more permanent job. Bob Yorburg

•I've given this tip before:- Use a small soldering iron. Poke the end into the tracker bar nipple with the remnant of rubber tubing still on it and wait 10 seconds. Move the soldering iron to the next nipple whilst you slip the now-loosened rubber stump off the first nipple with a pair of tweezers...

•Just got back from a trip and found this thread of around July 1-2 about removing old rubber from tracker bars. I'm afraid I can't offer much regarding how to do it properly. I can, however, offer good, free advice on how _not_ to do it! I had pulled the wooden tracker bar from my 1901 Simplex push...

•Hi all, Kim Bunker here from http://www.playerpianos.com/ Just got back from a trip and noticed the article about removing old rubber tracker bars. We discovered about 10 years ago that old clay and rubber disintegrate very easily in lacquer thinner. Remove the tracker bar then make a tray out of h...

•Greetings all, Does anybody have any whiz-bang advice for removing celluloid keyfronts effortlessly? I've already done the steam iron and peel method, and am wondering if there are other options. Thank you in advance. Skip Downing

•[ Skip Downing wrote in 050202 MMDigest: >> Does anybody have any whiz-bang advice for removing Celluloid >> keyfronts effortlessly? I've already done the steam iron and >> peel method, and am wondering if there are other options. Sometimes you get lucky and the steam a knife or chisel will remove ...