This has not been the best of times. I’ve always been extremely careful with my instruments and so far have avoided any accidents or damage to them. However, it was only a matter of time and it has happened. Last night, while I was oiling my keyless flute, the main body joint rolled off the table and fell 3 feet to the floor.
When I picked it up and examined it, at first I could not find anything wrong with it. And then I noticed that there was a chip on the outside edge of the head-end tenon. I was crushed. The joint must have landed head-end first and that point took the brunt of the impact. I then took another look at it and realized that, remarkably, the chip only went a little less than half-way through the thickness of the tenon, the break was extremely clean, and the inner bore looked fine (no chips, no cracks, no deformation). After scouring the floor, I found the piece that had chipped out and when I tried to match it back to the main body it was a perfect fit - no gaps.
So, my question is, would it be all right, at least temporarily, to use some cyanoacrylate glue to reattach the broken piece, reinforcing it on the outside with a few turns of PTFE tape?
Also, does anyone know or recommend someone who can handle a permanent repair of this nature? Unfortunately, my flute’s maker is no longer making these instruments and is rather difficult to get hold of at the present time.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can provide.
If you’re going to take it to a repairer then I’d avoid cyanoacrylate glue or any serious glue that can’t be softened because once it’s stuck that’s it and if you glued it back in the wrong position it’s more work for the repairer. there are animal glues that you could use as a temporay fix - it will become tacky when warmed so could be repositioned if needed it also won’t go off that quickly but you can’t buy it in a diy shop (at least not in the uk).
It sounds from your description that it’s playable with the chip out - until you’ve contacted a repairer
If it were mine I would simply very carefully glue it back in with cyanoacrylate glue, preferably quite a thin/runny one. No need to bother a repairer who would likely just do the same. Also, if you do get it wrongly aligned, you’ll be able to get it off again - it may just come away with leverage by a fingernail (be careful not to break the chip further) or you may need to dip it in acetone or wrap it with an acetone soaked cloth for a while, but superglue isn’t as permanent as all that, especially on these waxy hardwoods and more so when the contact surface is small and the centre isn’t far from the edges. You can extend positioning/adjustment time by being generous with the glue and wiping away the main excess with a cloth quickly, then cleaning up after - just be careful not to get attached!
Superglue does hold these kinds of repair well, but in my experience they can be removed, cleaned off and redone. It’s tensile strength isn’t very high. When you have fixed it, just clean off any surface residue with acetone and a cloth - or you may need to scrape acetone softened glue away with a blade, and maybe give the area a careful rub-down with fine steel wool. Once done, no need to worry about it unduly. An advantage of superglue in these situations is that it flows freely and has less bulk than any other suitable glue, so it is easier to get a precise re-fit. I suppose a waterproof PVA wood glue would also do a fairly decent job, but you’d have to clamp/compress the fragment in place by some means for several hours, versus the few seconds finger pressure with superglue (though you could apply a cable-tie, even with the superglue).
If the chip goes into the lapping bed and you have thread lapping, you might consider rewinding the lapping and soaking the first layer of thread over the damaged area with superglue as a reinforcement, waiting for it to dry thoroughly and then finishing the re-lapping. If the chip is just in the exposed wood outside the lapped area, there’s nothing more you can or need do. I wouldn’t bother wrapping that area in PTFE or whatever. Just leave it a day or so after completing the repair to be sure the superglue is well-cured, especially if you cleaned off with a solvent.
FWIW (and only going on your written description - a photo might be helpful…) I very much doubt a repairer or flute maker would do much more than glue the chip back in. More severe tenon damage requires removal of the original tenon, and grafting on of a new one - which sounds as though it would be way over-the-top in this instance. There aren’t really any intermediate repair possibilities I can think of.
If the chipped off part and the rest of the tenon fit well, then clean it with some high proof alcohol to remove any oil or resin, then reattach it with some epoxy. Once the epoxy hardens, then add a thin layer of fresh epoxy on the inside and outside (this can be smeared on with a rag) to render it more or less impervious. Then rewrap the tenon, or replace the cork if it was removed for this.
