Loose pins

[John M. Formsma]

Fritz,

There is a lot of information about this in the archives.

Don't know about the toothpick method.

Sometimes you can drive the pin a little bit further into the block.

CA (cyanocrylate) glue (super glue) will sometimes work. If in a vertical
piano, remove string from pin, then remove pin. Take thick CA glue and put
in into the hole, swabbing it with a hammer shank. Drive the pin back in,
put the string back on, and it will usually be tuneable in a few minutes. In
a grand, drizzling thin CA glue into the block may work. Be sure to protect
the action underneath with a newspaper just in case the glue drips thru. If
you are not familiar with this, you may want to find a more experienced tech
to help you.

Repin with the next size or larger pin.

There are a variety of repair thingees in the supply catalogs. In
particular, those metal sleeves that go into the pinblock. I have never used
those, but have seen them in a few pianos, along with sandpaper inserts.

This may give you a few hints, but you ought to search the archives at
http://www.ptg.org.

John Formsma
Blue Mountain, MS


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
Of fwilliam@collegeclub.com
Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2000 1:41 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Loose pins


List,
   I am a relatively new piano tuner looking to find the best way to deal
with loose pins, if there's only one or two on the instrument.  My course
manual states that a trick that can be used is inserting a toothpick in
the hole along with the pin, yet I don't want to try this until I know it
works and doesn't do more harm than good.  What are your experiences with
this?

-Fritz William Herrick
Montreal