Paul Larudee writes: <<please correct and advise me as necessary.>> This is much easier than you think. <<1. Loosen 1/4 turn or so, slip off the coil and turn the pin up a little higher than it should be when at tension. This is so that a) it will be at the right height when finished, and b) the glue will form evenly at all points on the pin, which it would not if it were under tension.>> No. Just hit it with the CA and accellerator where it is. Don't loosen it, don't take off the coil, etc. <<2. With the action out of the piano and plastic sheeting on the key bed, apply accelerator to the under side of the pin block at the problem area. This is so that any glue that might be tempted to drip will harden before doing so. The plastic is in case that fails.>> No - for just one pin slip a foot square sheet of alum foil above the action, below the area of the pin. You are only going to put on a few drops, less than one cc. <<3. Apply low viscosity (red label) glue to the base of the pin, using a well sealed hypo syringe (which I guess is trash after the procedure). Allow the glue to wick down until the pin won't take any more. Let harden completely.>> No. -Get a 1/2 or 1 oz. small bottle of the CA glue, put a capillary tip on it and apply with that. You should see it flow around the bae of the pin. Don't apply forever. Give it a good sploosh, let it sit a minute, give it another good sploosh, applying only around the pin, not out onto the plate, not up onto the coil. Let that soak in, then put a very tiny drop of accellerator at the base of the pin. You might see the residue of the CA glue "freeze" solid. I would leave it alone for several hours, a day or two is better, but it is possible that 10 minutes might also work. <<4. Clean the underside of the pin block; install and tighten jack. Whack pin just enough to break glue contact. Turn pin to point lightly above surrounding pins, replace coil, bring to tension and tune.>> No. It is unlikely that there will be a residue on the underside, especially for just one pin. The drips come from treating the entire pinblock en masse with several ounces of CA glue. <<How's that? The above advice is just my opinion, it is the way I would do it, but I bet it works better than the elaborate scheme you were intending. If the torque is insufficient, support and tap. If the current pin torque is above 15 inch pounds, it is unlikely that tapping is manditory. The CA treatment quite possibly will be enough. Some questions: <<Q#1: When the pin gets whacked, does it really separate cleanly from the surrounding wood (and the glue itself). Why doesn't some of the glue remain on the pin, possibly along with bits of wood from the block?>> Support the pinblock if you need to whack the pin, but I would just put the tuning hammer on the pin, knock it flat a bit, then tune. If things went well, you will likely hear the crack of a jumping pin, once, releasing the pin to be tuned. I treated quite a few pins in experimentation months ago, and just went and got the pieces of pinblock and cut them apart on the band saw. I sawed a few pins out from the block. The pins were essentially clean, the glue was into the wood, no fibers torn out at all. Perhaps it was because the pins I experimented on were new and plated? ( I started with pin torque of zero, with the pins able to fall through the holes, and got up to 80 in/lbs with two treatments. <<Q#2: Why doesn't the pin bind and jump during tuning from rubbing against a plastic and possibly uneven surface?>> Don't know, but none of the ones I have treated ever bound up or jumped, except for the initial break-a-way. Why not experiment on a scrap piece of pinblock in your shop before experimenting on the customer's piano? My 2 cents. Bill Simon Phoenix
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