Chickering

[JIMRPT@AOL.COM]

Hey y'all
 In my shop I have an old Chickering 5'8" grand. Brasss flangie dohickeys , of
course :-) This grand is antiqued and has floral designs with vines climbing
all over it.  The reason it is in my shop is for a complete rebuild and a
clean up/preservation of the art deco work on the case. It has sat in a vacant
house on the ocean for about 16 years. The house is now being restored by the
new owner and all the enterior furnishings are being redone as close to
original as possible....thus enters the piano. (the piano will be mainly
furniture but needs to be in a 'playable' condition :-)

  Now all the work on this thing is gonna be straightforward...except...there
is a split on the rim.  The split is right at the end of the platform for the
back leg and runs the full width (top to bottom) of the rim. Also the 'split'
is really a failed glue joint where the two sections of rim were joined
together at an angle.
Behind the rim, and on top of the platrform, are two solid oak 'knees' aprox 5
1/4" thick. These knees were put there to provide gluing surface/strength for
the two rim sections is my guess.
  I am planning on removing a section of soundboard behind the bass bridge to
gain gluing/clamping access to top and bottom of the knees/rim joint and then
jigging up formed clamping boards...... glue and clamp.

  Question: Has anyone addressed this particular problem before? If so how did
you handle it?  Any thoughts/suggestions?
Jim Bryant (FL)