Dunce of the Year

[Farrell]

I'm not ready to come out of the closet yet, but let me tell you about a piano tech "friend" I have. This dude was replacing a set of key bushings in a newer spinet. Apparently white glue was used - bushings did not come free as easily with wetting as hide glue does. So he just filled the mortices up with water - yup - just fill 'er up! After an hour or two of repeated filling the bushings finally came out pretty easy. The hard part was cutting, sanding and routing the swelled/dried keys so that the piano could work again!

Don't tell anyone about this, cause this guy would kill me if he found out I told!  ;-)

I've heard just a little water and a little steam works pretty good! That's what I do ........now.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vanderhoofven" <dkvander@joplin.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2002 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: Dunce of the Year


> List,
> 
> Here is my "Dunce of the Year" contribution!
> 
> Last month I replaced key bushings on both rails of a Steinway grand from 
> the 1930's.  I was so proud of myself, because I had measured the balance 
> rail key pins to choose the correct size of caul.  On this piano, the 
> balance rail keypins are larger than the front rail keypins, and like a 
> dunce, I used the same set of cauls for both sets of bushings.  When I 
> reinstalled the keys, the balance rail key bushings were just right, but 
> there was about .030" of play at the front of the key.  Needless to say, I 
> redid the front rail keybushings using the correct cauls, and corrected the 
> problem.  But it took half a day to redo the keybushings.  An extra 30 
> seconds of time measuring the front keypins could have saved me 4 hours of 
> working time.   What is that old saying... ?  "Measure twice, cut once..."
> 
> Please submit your entries for the Dunce of the Year contest!
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> David A. Vanderhoofven
> Joplin, MO
> 
> 
> At 06:30 AM 3/10/02, Avery Todd wrote:
> >List,
> >
> >Well, I'm admitting it! I made a really stupid mistake
> >today. I'm only telling this to remind others of the
> >possibility.
>