balance rail pin polishing

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Frank, 
               I have made two tools for this job, that I will try to
describe, a tool that works exceedingly well.   A piece of brass bar, drill
a hole deel enough for the BR pin and wide enough to fit felt BR punchings,
a machinist made a screw on cap with a generous hole bored in the centre.
Pack the tool with BR felt punchings and saturate with brasso. Use in a
drill and it will make pins gleam.
 The second tool has an off centre hole for the FR pins, the drill sure
wobbles, but it cleans the FR pins.

My first prototype was made by drilling a piece of dowel with a screw
fitted in one end for the drill chuck , the felt bushings was held in place
with duct tape. the second had the screw fitted off centre so a non
concentric motion is obtained to clean the FR pins.

Hope you can make some sense of this with out drawings

Regards Roger





At 08:41 PM 30/01/99 -0500, you wrote:
>What do you use to polish front rail and balance rail pins?  I use
>BRASSO polish.
>
>Is this ok? Is there anything better?
>
>How do you treat badly corroded front and balance rail pins other than
>replacement? I've used steel wool and it solved the problem, but I've
>been told it nicks the finish and will lead to premature key bushing
>failure.
>
>Finally, does anyone market a cleaning tool for these pins?  Danny Boone
>describes one in his book, but it requires a used case from a hypdermic
>syringe. These are not readily available.
>
>...looking forward to your advice.
>-- 
>
>Frank Cahill
>Associate Member, Piano Technicians Guild
>Northern Va
> 
Roger Jolly
Baldwin Yamaha Piano Centre
Saskatoon and Regina
Saskatchewan, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505