congaplace.com

Hey Good Folks,

Any suggestions for removing all the old adhesive from the split of an old Valje conga? This is not a water based glue.



Thanks for any suggestions.

Hi Doc, you could try dipping a cotton swab in solvents like acetone or ethanol and see if the glue is soluble in them... If not, maybe scrape it away?

Siete Leguas wrote:Hi Doc, you could try dipping a cotton swab in solvents like acetone or ethanol and see if the glue is soluble in them... If not, maybe scrape it away?

Hey SL,

I've tried Goof Off on a small spot and it had no effect. I've always been successful with hot water on any type of glue, but no luck on this. Of course I couldn't apply it directly, just soaked an old sock and rubbed, rubbed rubbed.

Was hoping someone would know what kind of glue Valje used. I've removed a lot of old glue over the years, but this stuff won't budge.

I have a 1975 Valje that has opened up along a couple of glue lines. I pried the crack open more with a knife, put a piece of coarse sandpaper in the crack and roughed up the surface of the butt joints between the staves, physically removing any loose or weak glue at the same time. Then I cleaned out the sanding dust with an alcohol soaked rag, let it dry thoroughly and re-glued the staves using Titebond. I refinished it with polyurethane. So far those joints have held up a couple of New York/New Jersey winter/summer cycles. But the old oak does have a tendency to dry out over the years and I don't think the glue Valje used back in the 70s was as strong as Titebond. I will let you know in 45 years.

Hello.

Some people use white vinegar, soaking the staves in the tub overnight.
I tried it once with a little barrel I had (badly) glued as a kind of training, but it didn't work very good for me. Maybe the vinegar was bad quality, or I wasn't patient enough.

I think jorge's solution is the good one :

I pried the crack open more with a knife, put a piece of coarse sandpaper in the crack and roughed up the surface of the butt joints between the staves, physically removing any loose or weak glue at the same time. Then I cleaned out the sanding dust with an alcohol soaked rag, let it dry thoroughly and re-glued the staves using Titebond.

Some people use epoxy instead of Titebond, but it's said to be irreversible, so it's better to use Titebond (1, 2 or 3)

You can also ask Ralph Flores (son of Tom Flores, the founder of Valje) : he's now got the brand name back from LP, and has his own site :

http://valjedrums.com/History.php

He also founded this brand :

http://www.resolutiondrums.com/

Stay safe, everybody.

Chtimulato wrote:I think jorge's solution is the good one :

Because of the limited access, sticking some sand paper in there and scrubbing is one of the first things that occurred to me. The thing is I'm pretty sure I'll end up with surfaces out of flush.

Chtimulato wrote:
You can also ask Ralph Flores (son of Tom Flores, the founder of Valje) : he's now got the brand name back from LP, and has his own site :

http://valjedrums.com/History.php

He also founded this brand :

http://www.resolutiondrums.com/

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

drtom wrote:The thing is I'm pretty sure I'll end up with surfaces out of flush.

Yeah I worried about that too, but you can avoid that. If you use very coarse sandpaper, carefully hold it so it is parallel to the joint butt surface you are sanding (ie inside the crack), and don't try to sand too much off, you should be able to preserve the angle. There is no need to sand completely down to wood, you just need to get much of the loose or weak glue off and rough up the rest so the Titebond will hold better.

Chtimulato wrote:Hello.

Some people use white vinegar, soaking the staves in the tub overnight.
I tried it once with a little barrel I had (badly) glued as a kind of training, but it didn't work very good for me. Maybe the vinegar was bad quality, or I wasn't patient enough.

I think jorge's solution is the good one :

I pried the crack open more with a knife, put a piece of coarse sandpaper in the crack and roughed up the surface of the butt joints between the staves, physically removing any loose or weak glue at the same time. Then I cleaned out the sanding dust with an alcohol soaked rag, let it dry thoroughly and re-glued the staves using Titebond.

Some people use epoxy instead of Titebond, but it's said to be irreversible, so it's better to use Titebond (1, 2 or 3)

You can also ask Ralph Flores (son of Tom Flores, the founder of Valje) : he's now got the brand name back from LP, and has his own site :

http://valjedrums.com/History.php

He also founded this brand :

http://www.resolutiondrums.com/

Stay safe, everybody.

Ralph will be coming over on Saturday, I will ask him and get back to you.
He recently glued four staves on my Tumba and returned it, used the same glue that they have always used. The drums looks amazing.

I spoke to ralph this past Saturday in regards, he confirmed that the glue is in fact not water base however, due to current regulations he can no longer produce the same glue as in the past but was assured that the replacement, ingredient for the glue, was just as effective as the original. This is the formula that he is currently using for his production and restoration work.
He noted that the only difference that he notices is the color tone which is now a bit lighter than before.
In regards to the removal of existing glue, he said that there is no easy way around it and recommends the use of a thin metal blade to brake the brittle existing glue.
This technique is very effective but tedious none the less. My Valje Tumba, see previous post, had four stave separations, he did the repair and the results were amazing.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!

Thanks Guys,

I was able to get a hold of Ralph Flores and he was very generous with his time and knowledge. Thank you Ralph!

He pretty much confirmed what KC has already related. And that's what I've ended up doing - slowly, carefully, chipping away at the old glue. I believe I've got most of it off.

By the way guys, I've cruised these types of discussions over the years and I've always noted that no one ever mentions removing the old glue before reattaching split staves. I've always thought to myself "Wow, these guys don't worry about cleaning up the surfaces they're going to reattach." Is this true?

I never showed you what I was working on. This is it.



I had so much trouble getting the staves completely together again. No matter how hard I clamped down on the shell I could see way too much daylight between the staves. My guess is the drum sat around so long the wood actually warped.

Actually had to tell the owner I couldn't do it. This was hard for me. A first.

I wonder if anyone has had similar experiences.

That is a tough gap to close indeed.

Maybe one would have to try reassembling it in total, i.e. talking ALL the staves apart.
At least that is what I once did with an LP Palisades Park mahogany bongo shell, albeit unvoluntarily - it fell apart when I removed old lacquer. Luckily I managed to rescue the drum with quite some patience and careful glueing.

But reglueing a whole conga shell like that Valje mofo is a challenge I would not really like to tackle.
On the other hand it is surely not impossible.

Mike wrote:Maybe one would have to try reassembling it in total, i.e. talking ALL the staves apart.

That actually occurred to me. But remember why I started this thread in the first place?

THIS FRICKIN' GLUE WON"T COME OFF!

Mike wrote:But reglueing a whole conga shell like that Valje mofo is a challenge I would not really like to tackle.
On the other hand it is surely not impossible.

I agree. It is doable. I could also build a whole new drum.

The staves came apart because the drum was dropped. Besides the splitting one of the staves suffered a break.



So it seems that only by brute force would I be able to fully disassemble this shell. And then only by lesser brute force would I be able to prepare all the joints for reassembly.