Some good news and a question. Baldwin M grand. Good news: My first home-made pinblock seems indeed to be an A-OK pinblock. I'm glad all the edges will be covered by plate and case, because I would not want to show it to anyone. The laminations are not cut very straight - inconsistent thickness - if I had more wood to work with, I would have ran the laminations through the planer - next time I will. The result is that the total pinblock thickness is 5% to 10% epoxy and the rest quarter sawn hard maple. Next one will be more wood and less epoxy, and look nice also. But this one should work quite well! More good news: Epoxy-fit new block to plate flange. Too lazy to go out last night and buy paste-wax to use as release agent. Sprayed a bit of McLube mold release stuff on flange, applied epoxy to block and mushed into place. Dreamt about taking a jack-hammer to the block to remove it from the plate. Just checked it this morning and, after an initial fright upon seeing apparent attachment, a couple gentle taps with a hammer and all was well - perfect contact all along flange - and a removable pinblock. Yahoo! Question: OK, so now I have new block fit to plate perfectly. I have plate fit and located to case with spacers around plate perimeter - can relocate plate perfectly. Now I need to temporarily install block and plate to locate block to case for a glue-and-dowel installation. When I temporarily install these, block will be located to plate and plate will in turn be located to case. How do I locate block to case so that I can remove plate and glue and dowel block into its proper place? I know I could do it the stein-way and just let the plate end up wherever, but I really don't want to give this piano THAT much "personality". The only thing I can think of is to drill on an angle through the plate, through the block and into the case at both ends of the block and locate the block with a dowel. I know I could do it with some shims between block and case sides and stretcher, but I fear you still might have enough play in such an arrangement and end up with a less than perfect pinblock location. Any other great ideas? Or just get the drill out and run a dowel through the whole mess and move on with it? Thanks. Terry Farrell
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