Hi again, I have a brass rod I use for settling strings to bridges and worse case, tapping strings to bridges. As you may have read recently, I was having some boring issues with my new WNG shanks and hammers exactly the same diameter. Well, I found a trick, since I don't have the correct sized reamer, I'll just describe what I did for a successful job..(yet to be glued) I took the end of this brass rod (sorry no measurements at hand), but it was juuuust snug enough to get into the hammer, but not enough to give the new hammer enough "wiggle" room on the shank. I took a file and made a few minor cuts into it, so as to give it a little bite to remove ohhhh so slightly enough wood from the moulding while spinning it a few times to make a really nice fit between hammer and shank....I call it the "just-o-right-o-meter" (which is what I call it when putting the correct amount of glue before hanging. It worked like a charm with just enough wiggle room between the two to get, what I'm thinking, will be a great glue joint with enough room to still be able to adjust the rake a tad if there is a problem....Like we aim for with wooden shanks, but just a bit less. A few were still too tight, so I took a small round file and took off still a minute amount of wood from the bore hole to get it Juuuust right! While doing this, it amazing that either some holes or shank diameters were just a weee bit off to need more than the neighboring mating. I could probably aim this at a small bit of difference in the swelling of wood, due to the time of year. I highly doubt that the carbon fiber swells or contracts much if at all. Amazing what we techs can do in a pinch without proper tools! I will, of course, purchase a reamer tomorrow, but if it works, then why bother? I know, it may come in handy for some other project yet unforeseen, so I'll still get one. Just a thought for you dealing with these new WNG shanks. Best, Paul From: "McCoy, Alan" <amccoy at ewu.edu> To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org> Date: 08/24/2010 12:59 PM Subject: [CAUT] WNG shanks - fair and balanced this time In the interest of fairness and accuracy I need to report back on an experiment regarding a statement I made yesterday about WNG shanks being only “one-use” shanks. I was wrong. I know many of you will be shocked to hear that news, but it’s true. I glued a hammer onto a WNG shank yesterday with Titebond Trim and Molding glue. This morning I checked it out and the hammer was tight as usual with a good collar. I took out my handy dandy heat gun and heated the joint and within 45 seconds or so off came the hammer and the remaining glue was soft enough for me to rub off with my fingers. So there you are. Granted this takes a bit longer to remove a set of hammers than just cutting them off or otherwise removing them by pressing them out, but it is doable for those times when you might want to reuse the shanks. Having said that though, the shanks are definitely different critters and I would not advise either cutting off old hammers (with anvil pruners) or pressing them off. Too risky I think. In addition after you have glued a new set of hammers onto the shanks, don’t get out your side cutters and attempt to cut of the excess shank sticking out there. Not a good option, tempting as it may be given their small diameter. Alan -- Alan McCoy, RPT Eastern Washington University amccoy at ewu.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100824/c0592cfa/attachment.htm>
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