getting serious about methanol

[Richard Moody]

Don't repin yet, wait two weeks.  Well with this high humidity perhaps only one
week. 
You wrote "as per factory instruction"   what factory ?  The 100% methanolo may have
taken out too much moisture and some might get re-absorbed. 

Methanol and ethanol are highly hydroscopic. That they absorb moisture and evaproate
quickly taking the water with them is my guess as to their hydroscopic action in
felt bushings.  The traditional "wetting" solutions were only 50% methanol with 50%
water.  That ALWAYS was enough to shrink the felt bushings NEVER causing looseness. 
But the action needed to be heated with moving dry warm air. Maybe you didn't heat
your action? 
	BTW was the loseness in the bushings or the birds eye? (both I will guess) 


	The way I was taught was that you repin for looseness in the birds eye.  For
tightness in the bushing you "treat" it, if that doesn't work then you treat a
second time. In practice you rarely if ever treat a second time. Repinning for tight
bushings means you risk looseness in the birdseye if you don't go up a size.
(Pushing out the old pin and pushing in a new pin is like burnishing the hole)  And
if you do go up a size on tight birdseyes you risk splitting, which takes its sweet
time to manifest the runination of an otherwise good butt. Hmmm maybe grand  flanges
don't split so easily. But what ever your choice, either repair is stressful either
has its pitfalls, both are effective as long as a great deal of care is used. 

HOWEVER.... I have given up the traditional wetting solutions because a drop of
Protek CLP on each bushing gets the same results in 5 seconds instead of 5 hours
with the traditional method. This seems too good to be true, but I have actions
going on two  years with flying colors.  

ric

----------
> From: A440A@AOL.COM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: getting serious about methanol
> Date: Saturday, July 03, 1999 4:13 PM
> 
> Greetings all, 
>      Hmm,  ok, here is the autopsy.  
>   As per factory instruction,  I went to the pharamacy and told them I wanted 
> straight methanol.  I placed the action in an area where it would not be 
> disturbed and put one drop on each hammer center.  I waited 24 hours without 
> touching it. 
>     Upon trial,  I find that almost half of the center pins were so loose 
> that the hammers wiggle side to side!   I must go back and repin this whole 
> line before I can trust the action to work.  I was taught to repin, and I 
> have done a lot of it, and I don't trust the chemical "sizing" process to 
> give consistant results. 
>       Anybody else have this happen?   And Lance, I know that in N.O. 
> anything goes, but we are not all tropical!(:)}}}
> Regards, 
> Ed Foote 
>