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New challange

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alex93

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Hello!

I decided to get an old accordion (80 bass Paolo Soprani, 2 registers on the treble side) and repair it in order to get some experience. The thing is that it's in a really bad shape, as you can see in the pictures (actually in the pictures it looks better that in reality). 

Things that need to be done:
- Clean reeds of rust and replace a few broken reeds.
- Replace all valves and all pads.
- Replace the leather that seals the reed block to the accordion.
- Fix broken corners of the bellow and replace the gasket.

There are a few more things i want to do to this accordion but i will get to them only after i finish these more important problems.

Do you know any good place (verified) where i can get pads, valves, leather, bellow corners, wax, glue and also reeds (without reed plates cuz' are expensive)? I live in Belgium so the shops should be able to ship here.
And maybe there is a way to clean those dirty leather diamonds of the bellow?

L.E: Only now i noticed that the pictures were not uploaded. Do you have any idea what year this might be?
 

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Hi,
It’s a good time to be doing such a project. I’m half way through restoring an old 1940s accordion myself. It’s all done now apart from the reeds. CGM Musical Services are where I get most parts etc. They post internationally and are very good.
 
Neoscan said:
Hi,
 It’s a good time to be doing such a project. I’m half way through restoring an old 1940s accordion myself. It’s all done now apart from the reeds. CGM Musical Services are where I get most parts etc. They post internationally and are very good.
Click to expand...

Except that they are closed during the current unpleasantness. :(
 
In the past week i made some research and i have discovered the the accordion is glued with only hide glue. I surfed a little bit more on the internet and an idea came up: to make hide glue myself. I did not have row hide and i thought that maybe some other animal skin can do the job. So i got a chicken from the market, took all its skin, removed most of the fat and boiled the skin for about 8 hours. From time to time i would and a little bit more water and remove the fat that stays on the surface of the "soup". At some point i filtered everything (probably after 7 hours) and continued boiling only the "soup" until i was left with only about a spoon of GLUE in the pot. I tested the CHICKEN GLUE and IT WORKED!!! The two pieces of wood i glued with it i couldn't break apart with my bare hands.

Was it worth spending 8 hours to make the chicken glue? No, but it was a nice experiment and i was really happy to find that it worked. Maybe there is a better way to make chicken glue.
 
Was it worth spending 8 hours to make the chicken glue? No, but it was a nice experiment and i was really happy to find that it worked. Maybe there is a better way to make chicken glue.

Alex,

Hide glue is essentially gelatine obtained by boiling down animal connective tissue in glue works.

You may be able to find it for sale online, in a pelletised form ( just boil in water), from suppliers of boutique woodworking equipment.

Also, the plain gelatine sold in packets in the supermarkets in the cookery section should make a very fair substitute! :)

Here you are: :)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/hide-glue/bn_7024940920
 
CGM is not closed! I just ordered and received parts from them.

What do you need hide glue for?
 
Alex,
Hide glue is traditional and all very well, but it is susceptible to moisture and will let go If exposed to a soaking! :-/
 
Sounds like a big job ahead!
Accordions used to be glued with a very smelly animal-based glue (probably what you call "hide glue") but they are not anymore. Titebond III is popular now (the one with the green label) and used in factories.
For the valves Bostik or Pattex is often used although I prefer the Pattex shoe glue. (I used to buy shoe glue in bulk but it hardens too quickly in the jar, beyond the point where you can still soften it with thinner. Tubes of shoe glue are more convenient.)
For work on bellows and such a regular white glue (pva glue) will do fine.
I order all my parts from Carini (carinidena.it) in Italy. They should reopen for business tomorrow (May 4, 2020).

I don't know what you mean by: "reeds (without reed plates cuz' are expensive)". When buying an accordion "reed" people usually do mean a reed plate with a tongue on both sides. Although I have learned how to replace a tongue on a reed plate I wouldn't bother and just buy a complete reed, that is with the reed plate. The only case where you would really replace a single tongue is on large bayan reed plates (holding many reed tongues) or similar plates used in the bass side of some expensive accordions.

If at some point you need just one part of something it helps to befriend an accordion repairer or shop in your region. As they do maintenance they stock parts for their repair shop as well.
 
oldbayan said:
CGM is not closed! I just ordered and received parts from them.

What do you need hide glue for?
Click to expand...

Well, in my accordion the hide glue was used for everything: wood joining, celluloid, the leather under the reed blocks, felt and leather on the pallets. And i want to keep it that way.

debra said:
Sounds like a big job ahead!
Accordions used to be glued with a very smelly animal-based glue (probably what you call "hide glue") but they are not anymore. Titebond III is popular now (the one with the green label) and used in factories.
For the valves Bostik or Pattex is often used although I prefer the Pattex shoe glue. (I used to buy shoe glue in bulk but it hardens too quickly in the jar, beyond the point where you can still soften it with thinner. Tubes of shoe glue are more convenient.)
For work on bellows and such a regular white glue (pva glue) will do fine.
I order all my parts from Carini (carinidena.it) in Italy. They should reopen for business tomorrow (May 4, 2020).

I don't know what you mean by: "reeds (without reed plates cuz' are expensive)". When buying an accordion "reed" people usually do mean a reed plate with a tongue on both sides. Although I have learned how to replace a tongue on a reed plate I wouldn't bother and just buy a complete reed, that is with the reed plate. The only case where you would really replace a single tongue is on large bayan reed plates (holding many reed tongues) or similar plates used in the bass side of some expensive accordions.

If at some point you need just one part of something it helps to befriend an accordion repairer or shop in your region. As they do maintenance they stock parts for their repair shop as well.
Click to expand...

The animal glue that was used in this accordion doesn't smell like anything to me.  Animal glue its still used in musical instruments as it is water soluble and makes repairs very easy.
By reeds i meant tongue, my mistake.
 
oldbayan said:
CGM is not closed! I just ordered and received parts from them.

What do you need hide glue for?
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Strange, I sent Charlie an email about 3 weeks ago asking for some bits and he replied saying he was closed until further notice. I'll get my order in quick before he changes his mind :exclamation:
 
Pipemajor said:
Thanks for that. Strange, I sent Charlie an email about 3 weeks ago asking for some bits and he replied saying he was closed until further notice. I'll get my order in quick before he changes his mind :exclamation:
Click to expand...

There is no mention of anything on their web page but you can check. Charlie is usually quick to respond to emails.
 
oldbayan said:
Pipemajor said:
Thanks for that. Strange, I sent Charlie an email about 3 weeks ago asking for some bits and he replied saying he was closed until further notice. I'll get my order in quick before he changes his mind :exclamation:
Click to expand...

There is no mention of anything on their web page but you can check. Charlie is usually quick to respond to emails.
Click to expand...

Yes he in now open again. I have sent my order in :)
 
Maybe the forum should have a section for accordion parts suppliers ?
Or maybe better 'merchants' with a parts subsection.

Then it could be updated with info like if they're open.

Could cause issues if people gave reviews though.
 
If it would help, I can search up the video that shows how one makes reeds out of a paint scraper spatula selected from the hardware store. It seems to me that this would continue in the same self sufficient vein as the home made hide glue.
 
donn said:
If it would help, I can search up the video that shows how one makes reeds out of a paint scraper spatula selected from the hardware store.  It seems to me that this would continue in the same self sufficient vein as the home made hide glue.
Click to expand...

I have seen that video. Making your own reeds out of a spatula would be an absolute last resort, maybe needed when working on bayan reed plates. For normal accordion reeds, just buy a new complete reed (reed plate with tongue on both sides already in place). It's just not worth the effort to try and make your own.
 
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