At 6:26 AM -0600 10/3/02, Avery Todd wrote: >I've only been working on pianos for almost 30 yrs. :-) >DUH!!!! Me too, and I claim the prize. Getting the string plate out of an 1867 Kirkman is never going to be the simplest of tasks, but I've broken enough cases apart in my 27 years not to be scared of a bit of chisel work. The side blocks holding the desk guides are glued on after the plate is installed and then the shaped front block is glued on right up against the front flange of the plate. A feeler gauge told me I'd need to do some damage here. I found the glue line for the side blocks, sawed along the veneer and with a few good taps of the chisel got the blocks away without even tearing the wood. Now for that tight section along the front at the bass -- not nice work digging a channel 3\8" wide and 2 1/2" deep and 18" long, but a bit at a time it was done and the plate looked nice and ready to come out. Jack under the treble end and up it comes...at the treble end. Obviously I need to do some more chiselling. Several hours later I know for certain there's nothing stopping it. I've checked a dozen times for that plate screw that I missed, but I've definitely got them all out and still that plate's stuck firm to the wrestplank for half its length. No clever screws from under the plank...but look at that little curved row of pilot holes! I'd seen them before several times and even knew what they were, but I'd not made the connexion with the sticking plate. Needless to say, two sections of agraffes were screwed through the plate into the wrestplank, so I hadn't missed a single screw, I'd missed about 50! That was last week, and I haven't felt so foolish since six months ago when I bored all the angles of a fine set of Steinway hammers with the mirror image of the proper angles and had to throw them away. I'm glad to say the Kirkman plate is fine and the repairs needed to the case will be as simple as if I'd done a tenth of the chiselling, but my hands and my pride are very badly hurt! JD
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