Double drilling pinblocks: Hand held versus drill press.

[Richard Brekne]

David Love wrote:

>The last block I did happened when my drill press was kaput and I was
>waiting for my new one (16 1/2" Delta, a real beauty).  So I drilled the
>block in two passes with a hand held and was suprised at how well and even
>it came out.  It did require a bit of concentration and I did have a drill
>with a bubble in a circle on the handle to get a uniform angle, but it made
>me wonder whether all this concern over elaborate drill press set ups was
>really as necessary as I had always believed. 
>

I think part of this has to do with a precieved value of insuring some 
extra degree of << accuracy >> that one can acheive after punging out 
the big bucks or time and effort in building a sophisticated drilling 
system. You are bound to want to justify the investment, and perhaps its 
easy to get carried away in that effort. In the end, if the pins hold 
the piano in tune, and do not present any real diffuculties for the 
piano tuner to control...then the pins are doing their job as well as 
they can. Any eveness, consitancies, conformance to a predetermined 
ideal, or whathaveyou beyond that is in the end superflous. Not that I 
will criticize the professional pride element mind you.

> So I was wondering about
>others' experience in this area.  The other issue I have found with two
>pass drilling (the only way to go I now think), is lining up the second
>drill with the pilot hole using a press.  I've now taken to drilling the
>pilot hole a bit smaller than I started out--now I use 7/32 pilot rather
>than 1/4", this makes it easier to hit all sides of the hole when drilling
>the second hole without going through a lot of neck bending yoga postures. 
>Because the second pass is very easy to line up with a hand held, I though
>that if there was no real drop off in torque uniformity, that hand held
>might not be such a bad way to go.  Anyway, I just finished drilling a
>block today and used the press--six of one...
>
>  
>

I think hand held is fine and would opt for it myself in any low volume, 
small shop situation. But if you have the money, and the room to 
contruct somthing like Terrys system. It certainly will go easier on 
your back, and you will most definantly get increased consistancies in 
every regard.... except in the tuning pins themselves that is :)

>David Love
>davidlovepianos@earthlink.net
>  
>

Cheers
RicB