Hi Terry, A lot of compression has taken place. It's less frustrating to just change all the flanges if you have a lot to do. One wee drop of CA in the birds eye hole will save you from over pinning the new flanges. That 100yr old felt is toast for a major reconditioning. roger At 06:44 AM 11/1/01 -0500, you wrote: >What happens to flange bushings as they age - let's say for 125 years. I >have not seen this subject addressed previously. Does the felt harden >commonly? The reason I ask is that I have had poor results repinning some >flanges from a couple 100-year old pianos I have been doing some action work >on recently. It seems that with a newer flange I can ream it with the >straight reamer, insert pin, and fairly easily get the desired fit - there >is a bit of cushion/resilience in the bushing, and a small "window of good >fit". With the old bushings/flanges it seems there is no forgiveness - ream >it out - check fit - still too tight - ream the teeny tiniest little bit - >check fit - too loose. The bushing material even feels different during >reaming - more firm. Is this just my imagination, or does bushing felt get >hard with age and make for less forgiving pin fitting? Can I assume this is >a reason to re-bush (perhaps we should just re-flange and steer clear of >politics!)? > >Terry Farrell >
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