Plastic (old) elbow dilemma

[Richard Brekne]

Good point... but then on a 30 to 40+ year old drop action I kinda have to think
that this is the exception to the rule and not the norm. Lets face it, that old
plastic just disintegrates in time. But of course if one finds a typical "whole
set" job that turns out being just a few, and you are very sure that the
majority of the set is in good condition, then there is no reason to change the
whole set. Unfortunately in the case of these old elbows... one is easily
burned. I understand completely the tendencie to out of hand insist on changing
the whole set. Lets face it, the use of early plastics for piano parts was a
dismale failure. Had this kind of thing happened in automobiles you can bet the
government over there would have forced the companies to pay for replacement
parts and labour.

Richard Brekne
I.C.P.T.G.  N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway

Joe & Penny Goss wrote:

> Hi all,
> In all this discussion, the posibility of there only being the few elbows
> that have broken are the only ones that need to be replaced, has not been
> considered as a posibility.
> This happened to me on an old Baldwin last summer. The Customer was very
> pleased that tghe cost was not going to be nearly as much as my phone quote
> of 250 to go with wood replacement parts.
> Joe Goss
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Susan Kline <skline@proaxis.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 1999 3:26 PM
> Subject: Re: Plastic (old) elbow dilemma
>
> >
> > >In a message dated 10/19/99 3:17:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > >tcole@cruzio.com writes:
> > >
> > ><<
> > > The nice part about this job, especially if time is a factor, is that
> > > the customer can help if they are so inclined. I showed this one how to
> > > grab the drop lifter wires with the vicegrips and remove and replace the
> > > elbows while I crunched the old plastic out of the wips. Forgot about
> > > leaning the piano against the wall, though, which would have been easier
> > > on the back. >>
> >
> > Bob Bergantino wrote:
> > >Tom:
> > >YUou are really asking for trouble when you get the customer now involved
> in
> > >this rather delicate  job.
> >
> > In this case, I beg leave to differ. Tom was doing the delicate part,
> > where the piano could be hurt. He was removing the shards from the
> thin-walled
> > wippens. A reasonably intelligent customer would not, IMHO, have any
> > trouble smashing the old plastic off the stickers, grabbing the wires,
> > and turning on the new parts. Presumably Tom helped install them and
> > checked the lost motion. While I usually do the whole job myself, I
> > did, on one occasion where the lost motion was really far out, have the
> > customer help me turn the buttons enough to get into the ball park.
> >
> > How hard do you think this work IS, after all? Do we need a three-year
> > course to thread on new Vagias elbows?
> >
> > Susan
> >