bridge repair advice

[John Ross]

Hi Tom,
My preference with a bass bridge, is to make a new one.
With the time involved, waiting for the epoxy to cure.
You can correct, spacing and bearing. The end result is much better.
Regards,

John M. Ross
jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca
----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2002 11:34 AM
Subject: bridge repair advice


> 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.
>