A Great Clamp

[Farrell]

I serviced a piano the other day with several notes not working. The cause
of one was a broken key - split forward of the center pin, and at a great
angle - resulting in a good deal of gluing surface. Me, being almost as
prepared as a good boy scout, had a wide variety of glue - great! I even had
some Tightbond - hmmm, that should likely work real good. Now just clamp it
together. Hmmmmm, no clamp. I did the nasty thing of asking the piano owner
if they had a clamp. Naddda clue of what a clamp even is! So, over to the
car trunk with fingers crossed. No clamps in sight, but hey, what's this? My
grand pinblock support gizzmo. I have a support that is made of two 8" x 4"
(approx.) pieces of pinblock material with two big bolts going through and
then you put a nut between the blocks and raise the nut to push the top
block against the pinblock. I simply reversed the locations of the nuts and
used the device as a big clamp. I was careful to not put too much clamping
pressure on the key so as to crush it! I can easily see that this clamp
could develop quite a bit a pressure. What a great clamp!

Key seemed to work fine (left it in clamp while I fixed the pedals, did a
pitch raise, and a tuning) when I was done (fine tuned that note after
installation). Suggested to the owner to be gentle with the key until
tomorrow. I have not heard back from client, so I trust the fix worked.

Now I always have a clamp in my trunk that I was not aware of previously.

Am I like really slick, or does everyone else use this device for clamping
and maybe a couple dozen other innovative uses?

Terry Farrell