Shoe pegs or epoxy to fill bridge holes

[Isaac sur Noos]

Most restorers in France route the bridge lower than the pins and
produce a higher piece for recapping. I don't like this approach for
some reason, but that was how I was shown that.

Isaac OLEG



> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org
> [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la
> part de Phillip Ford
> Envoye : dimanche 8 fevrier 2004 22:07
> A : pianotech@ptg.org
> Objet : Re: Shoe pegs or epoxy to fill bridge holes
>
>
> >    List
> >     For years we have used shoe pegs... I can usually
> drill a set of
> > bridges painlessly in about an hour or so.
> >
> >     The problem is that no one in the shop enjoys
> pounding square pegs in
> > round hole except my wife Trix & she's often to busy stringing
> > etc.......  Also the pegs are getting hard to find in
> quantity. Any way I
> > recently tried the West systems epoxy treatment squeezing
> it into the
> > holes. Relatively quick & painless except for the guk/sticky
> > factor.  Ater this I immediately glue on the caps also with epoxy.
> >   After it cured for about 5 days I drilled for the new
> pin holes but the
> > residual epoxy seems to powder up or alternately stick to
> the bit. I find
> > this characteristic unacceptable.  Then every other hole
> or so I must run
> > the bit thru some thin scrap spruce to clean the bit the
> drill again &
> > over & over etc. Tedious useless activity.
> >   I'd be interested in someone else's technique who has
> more experience
> > with epoxy in this application. I like the idea of
> epoxies hardness and
> > all that but I do a fair amount of bridge work & can't handle the
> > aggravation. What am I missing?
> >
> >   Dale Erwin
>
> Dale,
>
>       Here's my two cents worth.  I use epoxy for filling
> old holes and
> bonding on the new cap.  I have used West System epoxy, but
> I have some
> other thinner stuff that I ordered from another supplier
> that I have used
> of late.  I used to try to squeegee the stuff down into the
> holes with a
> flexible putty knife or some such.  I now use syringes that
> I get from a
> lab supply to shoot the epoxy down in the holes.  These
> syringes have
> removable tips.  I get various sizes and use the largest
> one that will go
> down in the holes in question.  They're cheap, so I throw
> them away when
> I'm done.  I don't use fillers to make the epoxy denser.
> To me this just
> makes it harder to get down into the holes and as far as I
> can tell from my
> own experience and from reading epoxy data sheets, the
> fillers don't make
> the final product any harder.  I find that I get better
> fill with the
> syringes and the work goes a lot faster.
>       I also used to fill the holes, let the stuff set, and
> then level it
> off with a router before bonding on the cap.  Now I just
> fill the holes and
> then bond on the cap at the same time.  If I were using the
> West System,
> then I would use a slow hardener.  The other thin stuff
> that I use is very
> slow setting anyway.  I also drill the next day (shop
> schedule permitting).
> I don't see any reason to wait 5 days.
>       As far as drilling - I use the bits from Pianotek,
> which seem to have
> more open fluting than a regular twist drill (not sure what
> you call those
> types of bits).  This seems to help a bit on the bit
> clogging.  I use a die
> grinder for doing the drilling, rather than a drill.  The
> one I use is this
> Dewalt:
>
> http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/tool_detail.asp?productID=155
>
> I had to do some fiddling with collets in order to get it
> to accept drill
> bits.  It has lots of torque, so it spins up very rapidly
> (also seems to
> spin down very rapidly - which is a good thing for this
> job).  Also, very
> high speed.  I find that because it starts up quickly, it
> seems to be less
> prone to slip when starting the hole.  Also, because it's
> so powerful, it
> doesn't seem to matter if the bit clogs or not (or for that
> matter whether
> the bit is even sharp or not), it just punches in the hole.
>  With a little
> practice you just blip the handle for a second or two, it
> spins up the bit,
> punches in the hole, and you can pull it back out of the
> hole about the
> time it's spinning down to a stop.  You can go rapidly from hole to
> hole.  I haven't timed myself, but I'd say I could drill a
> set of bridges in
> far less than an hour.  The only thing to watch is that the
> bit can get
> very hot (as you might imagine).  So, I  keep a cup of
> water handy, and dip
> the bit from time to time to cool it down.  By the way, to
> give credit
> where it's due, I got this idea from Alan Vincent.  I saw
> him using a
> similar setup at a PTG convention.  Some time later, I
> tried to duplicate
> it and came up with this, which may not be exactly the
> setup that he had.
>
> Phil Ford
>
>
>
>
>
> Phillip Ford
> Piano Service and Restoration
> San Francisco, CA
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