bridge repair advice

[Ron Nossaman]

>Next week I'm going to attempt to repair a cracked bass bridge by gluing it 
>back together.  Never having done this before, I'm hoping for some advice 
>from those of you who have tried this before.  The bridge, on a 1935 Monarch 
>upright, is cracked and separated along the bridge pins.  I plan to separate 
>fully the loose piece, remove the bridge pins, epoxy and clamp the bridge 
>together, and re-insert the bridge pins before the glue sets.   
>
>Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Tom Sivak
>
>P.S.
>This is kind of a no lose situation, in that the cost of replacing the bridge 
>is prohibitive to the owner.  (I got estimates from 2 RPTs who encouraged me 
>to try gluing the bridge myself.) They got the piano for free; no pianists in 
>the house;  oldest child is 5, so the piano hopefully was to be used for 
>beginning piano lessons in a couple of years.  So if the repair doesn't work, 
>not much is at stake.  It's a good situation for me to venture into the 
>unknown.  

Hi Tom,
Unless epoxying time is cheaper than fabrication time, if you want a pretty
fix it will cost about the same to glue the thing up as it will to pull the
old one and make a new one. If you aren't particularly picky about the
looks of the job, what you are suggesting should work fine. Tilt the piano
on it's back (which isn't necessary for replacement) and use a thick enough
epoxy that it won't all end up in the drop cloth under the piano, something
in the mayonnaise to ketchup range.  No need for excessive clamp pressure
because of the fine gap filling properties of epoxy. You probably don't
even need to take it apart first, if a little heat from a heat gun or hair
drier will temporarily thin the stuff enough for it to wick down into the
crack(s). If so, clamp *after* plenty of epoxy is deep in the bridge. Put
the pins back in and line them up as well as you can, clean up as well as
you reasonably can, and leave only when you are sure the epoxy won't sink
further and the pins won't migrate. Come back tomorrow, reconnect the
strings, stand it up and tune it. I'd probably put a dowel or screw or two
through the bridge body then too as precautionary insurance. But then I'm
an habitual over builder.

In your favor for a repair like this is the fact that it takes an
incredibly nasty ugly poor bridge termination in the bass of an old upright
to have a detrimental affect on the sound. Nearly anything should improve
what's there, but will still cost in time nearly what making a new bridge
would have. 

Now, is the rest of the piano in playable enough shape to serve as a basis
for setting the lifetime habits of fundamental technique for a beginning
student?

Ron N