Oddball Agraffes

[Paul S. Larudee]

Ron Torrella wrote:
> 
> While digging around for a recent article on keybaord releading (...and
> still looking, hint, hint!), I happened across a Q&A/Editor's Roundtable
> in the Nov.'98 Journal wherein Mike Masters (Cleveland) was asking about a
> 1924 Knabe's agraffe size. I'm in the middle of a rebuilding battle with a
> 1924-5 Chickering grand whose agraffes I decided were due for replacement.
> As Masters similarly discovered, modern production agraffes didn't want to
> in my patient despite appearing to have the same thread pattern and shank
> size! If memory serves, I believe the agraffes were ever-so-slightly
> *smaller* than the 7/32" model. Oy.

A beautiful old Gerold had ever-so-slightly oversize holes and 35
threads per inch instead of 36!  Needed Loctite on a couple of the new
agraffes, but otherwise have held for the last two years.  Couldn't be
due to worn taps, but I'm sure the calibration standard was not that
important then, as long as the agraffes and plate hole matched.
> 
> However, much to my amazement, I discovered that I was able to ream out
> the holes with a proper 7/32" tap! The new agraffes went in without a
> hitch.

What good is an agraffe without a hitch?

Ouch!  I can feel it already.

Paul S. Larudee, RPT
Richmond, CA