Query

[Ron Nossaman]

Hi James,

At 09:57 AM 1/1/98 -0600, you wrote:
>	I wonder what happens when you get to the point of drilling out the
>Steinway plate to accept plate bushings and the holes in the lower middle
>start to overlap one another?
>	Are all Steinways of the same model (in the older ones you would be doing
>this to) have their plate holes drilled in exactly the same place so you
>could say one model you can do this but another model you could not?


There's a local tech here who has rebuilt a bunch more Steinways than I
have. When he can secure the customers' permission he, like I, will ream the
plate for bushings. He has never mentioned a case of overlapping holes, and
I haven't run into it either. They do come pretty close in spots. Perhaps a
better way is what I suggested and Del confirmed that he is already doing...
enlarge the holes a bit for plate clearance, but leave the bushings out.
This would realistically take care of the plate riding problem without
making a big enough difference visually to trigger the wrath of "The Exalted
Keepers of The All Holy Steinway Morphology". 


>	I know everything I have read on this list, techs use the bushings as a
>guide to drill the holes in the block.  That drills out the bushing to the
>same diameter as the pin hole in the block. It seems to me that drilling
>through the bushing would cause many of them to just spin right out.  I
>used to (it has been since 1986 when I replaced my last block) have a brad
>point punch to mark the center of the hole through the plate marking the
>block and then drilling the holes with the drill press.  The last thing I
>would do before begin stringing would be to insert the bushings and driving
>them (the pins)  through the into the block.  This is how I was taught in
>the 60's and never even read about drilling through the bushing till
>reading the journal and on this list.  Is there a consensus on which way is
>the best?
> James Grebe
>R.P.T. from St. Louis
>pianoman@inlink.com
>"I am a better tuner now than  ever  before"


I'd recommend drilling through them for a couple of reasons. First, why go
to all the trouble to bypass the built in handy dandy drill guide? If you
are doing it this way only so you can drill the block in the drill press,
there are other possible alternatives. My drill press is a 16" (or 32"
depending on who wrote the ad) Rockwell Delta radial. It's too light weight
for precision machine work, but it's gangbusters for versatility. I made a
base (about 12"x 18") out of old pinblock material, hinged a 4x4 flat to the
top of it (and toward the front) with a clamping arrangement to vary the
angle of the 4x4 relative to the base. I bored a hole in the top of the 4x4
and epoxied a short length of pipe (as close as I could manage to) the same
size as the drill press post. Then I drilled a 3/8" or so hole through the
approximate center of the base and permanently installed an air valve with
quick disconnect (chip blower, or whatever they're called this week) on
about a 3" length of hose for flexibility. To drill a pinblock, I set an old
double  width pinblock plank (the cheap rotary cut stuff from Schaff that I
keep for just this purpose) on top of the piano for a working base. Then I
hoist the drill press head off of it's post (good old block and tackle fence
stretcher) carry it over to the piano and set it on the post of my
contraption. Tighten everything down, connect the air hose, put in the
appropriate bit, fire it up, and go. When moving between pins, depress the
handle on the air valve and you have a small ground effect machine
(hovercraft) that floats effortlessly a few thousandths of an inch above the
plank. Let go of the valve handle before you drill, and the base sets down
on the plank and keeps everything nice and solid while you crank the bit
down. If it doesn't seem to float right and drags front or back, slide the
horizontal post forward or back as necessary to balance the assembly. The
truly neat thing about this setup, in my opinion, is that you can line the
contraption up with the angle the string takes between the pin and the
agraff when drilling so the back lean of the pin is always directly away
from the tension when strung. Does anyone do this on a drill press out of
the piano? Does anyone else do this at all???     

The second reason for drilling through the bushings is for torque. If you
don't drill the bushing, driving the pin through that small a hole will
temporarily increase the torque of the pin after installation. It won't last
long, and doesn't add a thing to the piano, but it gives a false impression
of what the final working torque of the pin will be. I'd rather know what
I've got immediately than guess in a fudge factor for the bushings.  

Hope this helps, 
 Ron Nossaman