Hello Dave, When I had the same thing happening I drilled three holes with a 1 mm drill next to the remainder of the regulating screw. Then I pushed the remainder out, for there was no wood enough to keep it in there. After that I drilled a hole from the size of a hammershank, filled it up with a shank, shaved it off and drilled a new hole for the replacement regulating srew. It takes some time before you realise you can't get it out neatly you know. I hope you can use this info. Henk Cousijn, Holland ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Nereson <dnereson@dimensional.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2000 5:54 PM Subject: Re: pianotech-digest V2000 #984 > Does anyone know how to loosen up "frozen" (seized-up) regulating screws -- > in this case, let-off screws. This is in a Baldwin studio, only 20 years > old or so. I tried turning them carefully and the eyelets would break off. > So I had to take off the button, grab the other end of the screw with a > vise-grips and turn out the remainder of the screw. But in some cases, that > would break off also, leaving only that portion of the screw that's in the > wood, and nothing left to grab. So I tried heating them all with a torch, > thinking the expanding metal would also expand the hole in the wood, then > when they cooled, they might turn easier, but no dice. They still break > off. And they're not even rusty. I hate to put any type of oil or liquid > lube, thinking that would expand the wood cells, making the let-off screws > even tighter. How to get the remainder of the screw out of the wood? (I > can do it by carving away enough wood to let me grab some screw with the > visegrips, but hate to butcher the rail). Can ya buy a new let-off rail > from Baldwin (it's the common studio model that's in many many schools)? >
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