Pin Torque

[Ron Nossaman]

At 10:40 PM 3/25/99 EST, you wrote:
>Avery Todd, RPT.,  wrote:
>
><<Since torque readings have come up, what IS a good torque reading?>>
>
>Good question.
>
>First - how to measure. 
>( If anyone does this differently, I would like to hear about your method.) 
> Tune two strings of a unison beatless. Then with a square tip on a 1/4" drive
>torque wrench, one that reads from 0 to 200 inch pounds, or even a smaller
>torque range, slowly and gradually apply reverse torque to a pin, trying to
>make it go down in pitch.  Watch the reading on the scale until you just hear
>the two strings start to detune. That is the reading I am looking for.
>

>Bill Simon
>Phoenix
>


That's how I've done it. The last time it came up was with a new Baldwin SD
10 in a music store roughly ten tears ago. We got ranges from over 280 in lb
to below 30. The only reason I broke out the torque wrench in the first
place was to have some numbers to give the folks back at the ranch in
Baldwin country when the dealer wanted something done about it. This was an
extreme case and I didn't have an affordable fix for them. Normally, in a
field situation, the pins hold with what feels like a reasonable margain, or
they don't. I don't usually take torque readings because I am normally
warning them of an impending problem, rather than proposing an immediate
fix. If the pins hold through the next winter, they feel lucky to have
gotten another year out of it and are thinking about, and planning for, the
alternative. If the pins don't hold, then it's time to make some decisions.
But then I don't live in Phoenix, and loose pins aren't an expectable
consequence of moving here from nearly anywhere else you could name. I can't
say I envy you that.

 Ron