Agraffe reaming

[Ron Nossaman]

>I have routinely used shims for alignment.  A change in height of .007 or
>.0035 at the agraffe will not make any appreciable difference in the
>height, bearing or anything else.  The agraffe can also be trimmed if you
>prefer to work that way.  If there is a concern, set bearing after the new
>agraffes are installed.  Sorting through the agraffes screwing them in and
>out of each hole to see which one happens to align seems like a very
>tedious task and one in which it is very likely you will not end up with
>everything working out just right anyway.
>
>David Love

Where did you find 0.0035" and 0.007" shims? Pianotek carries 0.012", and 
0.020". Schaff has 0.010". The 0.010" will back the turn off 129.6°, the 
0.012" will go 155.52°, and the 0.020" will go 259.2°. While I do certainly 
agree that these levels of height changes are insignificant, fitting 
agraffes for alignment isn't that big a deal - if you find a good lazy 
bum's method. I use a brass spacer cylinder that's the diameter of the 
agraffe shoulder, and cut to some length increment of 0.5"/36 (0.01388etc), 
that is about 1.5 or 2 turns shorter than the agraffe stud. With the spacer 
in place on the spot face, it just takes seconds to drop in an agraffe, 
turn it down 1.5 turns to seat, visually evaluate the alignment, and either 
accept or reject it. I can check a half dozen in the time it takes me to 
screw one all the way down, and all the way back out. Interestingly, you 
will likely need fewer than 20% more agraffes than are needed for the piano 
to do the whole set without a single shim, or any shoulder reaming at all. 
If you still need to shim or ream anything, it will only be a couple, and 
you are still way ahead in time.

But that's just what I do.

Ron N