Adhesive question

[Robert Anzellotti]

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

I think there is a place for epoxy in instrument repair. If the broken part is not something that needs to be disassembled in the future, and epoxy will make the repair strong (and save money), I think it's fine. This assumes we're talking about slow-cure epoxy, not the 5-minute kind, which never totally hardens.

I don't disagree with Arnold, but want to add that with epoxy you only get one chance. I once repaired a broken scroll (it broke right where it met the neck) on a student's 1/4 size plywood. The local violin shop looked at it and said they would use epoxy. I decided to fix it myself (I'm no luthier!) but decided on hide glue. It was an excellent decision. The clamping jig I devised failed miserably on the first try. Had I used epoxy, the neck would have been firewood at this point. As it was, the third time was the charm, and the repair holds to this day!