Rendering, et al

[Ron Nossaman]

>Ron 
>
>Some of the other have alluded to the holes being elongated, which is what I 
>was referring to when I said "cut." 

* Unlikely in new agraffes unless they've developed the oval drill bit
without telling me. I hope not. I hate it when they keep things from me.
BTW, there is a setup to drill square holes with a rotary bit. Just in case
you hadn't seen one. 


>But in regard to the above statement, 
>perhaps we might have found the answer to your problem. Unless you are 
>exaggerating, agraffs should be turned into their holes until they are snug. 
>They should never be forced to be turned passed a natural stopping point. In 
>order to get them to be at the right angle, you need to put washers under 
>them, or ream out the base of the agraffe. If you over tighten them, it will 
>cause the threaded part of the agraffe to break. 


* How do you get an agraffe seated on the plate unless you turn it past
where it snugs up finger tight? Isn't it just a matter of how far past snug
you have to turn it to square it up? I consider 1/4 turn to be about right,
and I may go a little further as a matter of expedience. If you sneak up on
it, tightening, loosening, and tightening a little further, you can scrub
the beveled edge off of the bottom of the agraffe and get them squared up
without using the end mill. You can get away with more of this with 1/4"
stem than with 7/32. I've never broken a stem installing agraffes (only
removing them), but I've broken a couple at the holes with a poorly fitting
tool. Yea, I know... dumbness!  



I am wondering if the noise 
>you are hearing is the agraffe "vibrating" because the stem has a slight 
>break in it. The next thing that will happen is for the agraffe to break.
>
>Again, just a wild guess on my part. 

* I doubt it. Wouldn't it vibrate when playing as well as, or instead of,
pinging when the string is moved if that were the case? Also, wouldn't all
three strings of the trichord do the same thing in that case? In this case,
only individual strings have the problem. That, incidentally, is also my
reason for being sceptical about the brass mix being the culprit.

This seems like a good place to ask, since it hasn't come up for discussion
before. I'd like to know anyone's procedure and tolerances for installing
agraffes, if you wouldn't mind.

 Ron