Re: [Harp-L] Small mp leak

[burket@xxxxxxx]

 Hi Cal (and to all who have been contributing).

This is a great thread.  Some really good suggestions and much appreciated.  I'm currently battling a leaky G and D, 270.  The D, I have concluded has a comb that is too warped to work with and with that not working properly I can't attack or isolate the other problems.  Once I get a replacement I can see how it responds.  Since the current wood one is no good, I'm wondering if would it make sense to replace with plastic or other material now since its like starting over?  Recommendations welcome.

For the G, since I have some rubber cement handy, I am going to give that a shot as Winslow suggested.  Most of the leaks are toward the high notes near the slide.  If I crank down the screw there, the leaks are better, but the slide is not choked and won't move in the slot.  I think one of the problems here is the curve of the mouthpiece being too extreme. 

I have had some improvements with flat sanding and sealing the combs, (adding screws along the way).  And also honing down the comb face as Joseph suggested.

Joseph Leone (wrote)
"Oh, and btw, if the comb is SO uneven it's still hard to seal against the 
mouthpiece parts, you may want to hone down the comb face on a dead flat piece 
of glass coated with fine emory paper. Remember to remove the spring. "
Joseph: Would you do this with the reed plates on, or off?  Seems like you would want them on.  I have noticed that some minute differences can maybe have the plates not quite flush with the comb.  If you did them together you would have everything nice and ready for the mouthpiece parts.  Honing down the spring at the same time I figured was a bad idea :)

Douglas Tate's book mention's melting Beeswax on the screw hole areas and then flattening this area out.  
I'd be curious if anyone has done this or maybe tried Blu Tack for any of your sealing adventures?

Good luck with the silicone Cal.  

Burke T. 
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Message: 9
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:37:24 -0700
From: Music Cal <macaroni9999@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Small mp leak
To: harp-L list <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
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Thanks to all for your helpful tips on plugging mp leaks. I just received
the sample of sheet silicone that I ordered. The thickness looks very good
(0.011 in) but it is not very compressible. So it looks like I will have to
send another email to AA Acme rubber and see if they can send me a more
compressible sample.

I like Smo-joes Elmer's Glue suggestion. How does Elmer's hold up under
saliva?

Winslow's suggestion of rubber cement is intriguing. I would want to
investigate the toxicity of the stuff.

Larry, how's the compressibility of the teflon sheet you mentioned? I would
guess it would be to rigid.

Vern. All of my chromatic harps have leaks to varying degrees. I would like
to be able to rid myself of all of them in a robust manner without having
to spend lots of time tinkering with each.

Music Cal