Steinway "0" pinblock

[Paul Kupelian]

Hi all,

I have a person who owns a Steinway "0" circa 1922.  He works for a piano
dealer where our chapter is currently working on a rebuilding project.
The trade off for the dealer keeping our piano there is to herp his
employee get his "0" back in playing condition.

When we took the plate out for refinishing, we noticed that the block was
not dowelled into the stretcher. There seems to be about a 3'16" gap in
spots between the block and the stretcher.  Now I know everyones first
thought is change the block, but unfortunately, that does not seem to be
an option.  You know, the money thing.  The block appears in all respects
to be useable.

Was this a common thing back in the "0" days, and if not, does anyone
have any suggestions?

One of my thoughts was to drill through the outside of the stretcher into
the block and insert dowells from the outside.

Our chapter meeting is tommorow at the store to work on our project, so
if you have any ideas out there, please post.

Thank you.

Paul Kupelian, RPT
kupelian@oswego.edu