Good Adhesive for Pads?

[TheReedGuy]

Hi,

I've had a local band teacher ask if I could get him a tube of adhesive of some kind to help re-attach pads in class. At some point he had one made by Herco, but apparently they no longer make the product he had. I spoke with a repair guy and he had no alternatives, in his shop he has sticks of shellac that he heats up to re-adhere the pads.

Anyway, I'm (clearly) in the dark on this a bit, but if anyone's got a good suggestion for a ready-to-use adhesive that I could get for him, I'm all ears. Or if I should steer him away from that, that's cool too - just looking for some thoughts/insights.

Thanks!

 

[Steve]

I recall tubes of cement/adhesive from decades ago that were in Teacher Repair Sets.
I think it was basically Contact Cement.
You apply a dab to both the pad and the empty cup or separated pad. You have to let it air dry at least 5 minutes (more like 10) but then it will stick immediately. If done too quick it will slide/move around and takes a lot longer to dry.

You can get various small tubes or small glass jars of Contact Cement at a small hardware store or maybe even Walmart or places like that.
But as you can guess, many quick fixes were to reinstall the pad that fell out. If that pad has a tonehole indent then it's difficult (sit the pad on the tonehole and align it. cement both the pad some and the padcup. Then hope it's enough after several minutes to close the pad.

The main issue of quick fixes is when a key is not independent, then you have to be aware of the other pad(s) and the thickness of the adjesive becomes key. There's a lot to just a pad install to make it "perfect" which is why shellac is normally used. I used to use stick shellac but when to flakes or crushed as it was far easier to heat and adjust quantity.

 

[ghostler]

For emergency repairs, I have used contact cement, small bottle that came with a brush available from hardware stores.

For sax pads, I tried something new, hot melt glue. Don't know what the pro techs use, but seems to be a reasonably new way to do. Plus, using a Harbor Freight electric heat gun that I also use for shrinking tubing over hobbyist electrical wire repairs, (versus the old Bunsen alcohol Burner for woodwind pads), can reposition / re-seat it. Plus, the heat gun involves no fire and heat comes on quickly. (But, I wouldn't use this for say, clarinets but extremely carefully, wouldn't want to damage the "ebonite" (fancy term for plastic) or wood.

But, that is me, and to all others, YMMV - your mileage may vary.