agraffes on - agraffes off

[Farrell]

> The new agraffes we get here for the Steinway have a sharply angled
> seat so that as you screw them down the brass is crushed and you are
> supposed get the alignment that way without using shims.  American
> agraffes are different as regards the thread, so maybe it's only the
> German agraffes that are like this.

The agraffes I got from Painotek have quite an angle on the base - the outer
part being the first to contact that plate. They sound like the same type of
feature you are describing. I found that you get quite a bit of travel
(turning) after the base first contacts the plate.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Delacour" <JD@Pianomaker.co.uk>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: agraffes on - agraffes off


> At 4:33 PM -0600 12/11/01, Ron Nossaman wrote:
>
> >The guys making their own shims are considerably in the minority and
> >don't have these limitations, but that still leaves the height
> >question for them.
>
> Yes, and that can be significant.  If I'd screwed all the agraffes
> home on the last Steinway O I did, they'd have been visibly up and
> down all over the place owing to the irregularity of Steinway's
> countersinking.
>
> >  Those milling off the bottoms of the agraffe shoulders for
> >alignment get the same height question. So what are all you
> >rebuilders out there doing with those agraffes?
>
> The new agraffes we get here for the Steinway have a sharply angled
> seat so that as you screw them down the brass is crushed and you are
> supposed get the alignment that way without using shims.  American
> agraffes are different as regards the thread, so maybe it's only the
> German agraffes that are like this.
>
> I inherited a whole load of upright agraffes a long while ago and
> these have no thread at all.  I never used them until last year when
> I was rebuilding (properly this time) the first piano I ever restored
> (in 1973).  The agraffes were a beautiful tight fit in the threaded
> plate borings and needed just firmly knocking in and lining up with a
> fat screwdriver.  That's perfect on an upright of course where the
> shock drives them homewards but wouldn't do for a grand, though an
> angled grub-screw could make such an arrangement feasible for grands
> too; but I'm not going to put any thought into it.
>
> JD
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