Best Adhesive for Octave pad

[nigeld]

Apologies if this question has been asked before, but I didn't find it if so.

I am restoring an old soprano sax, and I have decided to try my hand at replacing some pads.
I have read about adjusting the larger pads and using shellac, but my question is about the very small pads - for example the octave key pads and the side key pads. What is the best adhesive for these? I am tempted to use a simple everyday glue, such as Evostick, rather than a heat-based one, because the pads presumably don't need adjusting.

 

[Stephen Howard]

Evostik doesn't seem to like getting wet over a long period of time. It'll do, at a pinch, but I wouldn't consider it to be a reliable long-term fix.
And you may need to adjust the octave pad. Granted, you hopefully won't be doing the fine levelling a larger pad requires, but you might have to shift the overall angle of the pad. You want that shift to stay put...and if you're working with wet evostik the pad is likely to slip back to where it most wants to be (rather than where it needs to be). If you're planning to work with tacky evostick you better make sure you get the pad bang on first time around.

From there the choice is shellac of one of the hot melt glues. I find either works well for octave pads - and while I prefer shellac generally, I tend to favour hot melt glue for octave pads as it has better water resistance.

For the side keys, even though they're small, its shellac or hot melt.

 

[nigeld]

Many thanks for the information. The Evostick will stay in it's tube.

 

[kevgermany]

Many thanks for the information. The Evostick will stay in it's tube.

Until you do corks and felts.