Good info, Jim. Thanks for posting

--bn

Ah, valve glue. This seems to be one of the most widely disputed, discussed, and disagreed on topis for accordion repairers, as silly as it seems. I've tried several, and still haven't found one I'm completely happy with. Plus, I'm really wanting to get away from leather and go with mylar, which starts it all over again.

Apparently sticking leather, or mylar, to aluminum or brass, and wanting it to stay there long term and still be removable without creating a mess, not distorting the valve, and not leaking, is a tall order.

I'm no glue expert, but contact cement seems to work good, and is not impossible to clean off the aluminum plates. It's tough stuff. Elmers Contact Cement isn't too shabby. However, if you want to try and recycle your leathers (form back into shape after they're too bent from many hours of play), you'd have to use a dremel to sand it off the leather. Only really doable with the larger leathers with boosters

I use contact cement for leather also. I like it because it sticks good but doesn't dry hard and mess up the leather. I use one for leather I get from Tandy leather. I've been using a type of super glue on the mylar.

for the mylar, is it a slow drying super glue? Fast drying gives me indigestion I feel like I'm racing the glue

I use one i get from Rockler Woodworking that is labeled "medium", which refers to the viscosity but it also dries slow enough to allow positioning. I also got their "thin", which is super thin and absorbs into wood quickly and deeply, I use it a lot for repairs. I used to think super glue was just to stick fingers together.