coils/pins

[james turner]

     With the resent discussion on coils/pins, I am a bit confused by
what some of you are saying.  

1)  Should the wire stick out of the becket at all or be flush with the
pin?  I notice daily that many quality pianos have the strings coming
out of the beckets and this was done in the factory.  If this practice
is wrong and the string should be flush in the tuning pin, then why do
so many piano companies do this?

I use the Sciortino Insta Coiler which also causes the string to extend
out of the tuning pin hole ( unless I am using it incorrectly).  Is
there another tool for making coils some of you find superior to the
Sciortino tool?

2) I was taught to make sure all the pins are at the same height by
using a cardboard jig or taping a hammer shank on the tuning pin punch
and pound the pin in until the hammer shank hits the plate.  I would set
the hammer shank so the first pin has about 3/16" from the bottom of the
coil to the plate.  I believe this is the method Art Reblitz recommends.
Is there a better way to do this?  

3)  If the bottom of the coil to the plate is more important then the
height, then how do you set this with each pin?  Is there another type
of jig available? It looks kind of odd to see tuning pins at different
heights for the sake of preserving the coil to plate height.  Reblitz
says it should be about 3/l6" when the strings are up the pitch. Do most
of you agree on this 3/l6" figure?

4)  Someone suggested using only two coils on the single bass pins
instead of three.  Is this a technique most technicians agree upon?

Thanks for your comments

Jim Turner