I'm wondering, as this is just for display, why use glue at all? Why not
cut a tight matte out of non-acid board stock, then put that and the
record under glass in a frame? The glass and the matte will hold the
disc together for display purposes.

Steven Austin

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of George Brock-Nannestad
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 11:20 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Does anyone fix broken records?

From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Alex Hartov wrote, and I wish I could be in complete agreement with him:

  Once everything is in place, I use a needle dipped in
> cyanoacrylate (crazy glue) so that it forms a small drop on the end.
> By applying the needle to the outer end (on the edge of the record) of
> the crack(s) the glue is sucked into the crack by capilarity.

----- this type of repair is what I taught for certain problems from
about
1991 to 1998 at the School of Conservation, but the household
cyanoacrylate
has changed. It used to set when it was starved of oxygen, but in later
years
it sets when subjected to humidity. Pre-moisturing the broken parts is
no
good, because then it sets before the capillary action has completed.
The
good thing was that the old type had a very low viscosity and would
really
penetrate a narrow interstice, where it would set because the oxygen was
not
available to the surface. Possibly you may still get professional types
that
work according to this principle, but some of them are dependent on
certain
metals being present instead. Obviously the gel types are no good!

However, the question was not concerned with replay but with display,
and
here a warning is in place: the fumes from the liquid cyanoacrylate will
attack the surface of the shellac compound of the record and a repair
will be
very visible. For display purposes it would conceivably be possible to
support most of the edge all the way round, and a polyvinylacetate
cement
(possibly diluted somewhat with distilled water) could perform the
slight
attachment needed between pieces. However, cracks would still be
evident. So,
cheating could be resorted to: make a first-class colour print of the
original label and stick that on a similar whole record. I stress
similar: it
must have run-in and run-out grooves that look more or less than the
original, or someone will pick up the strange appearance.

Kindest regards,

George