hearts on fire NOT OT

[A440A@aol.com]

Guy writes: 
<<  Don't be 'fraid. By now you've seen Carl's post. 

Too late, I have already been back to the shop to check for a crack three 
times.  I wonder if the cracked plates in others have been caused by the tension 
on the scaling or poor fitting of plate between the pinblock, rim, and 
nosebolts. Sheer compression,(not shear), doesn't seem like it could cause that sort 
of damage. Unless the upward force caused by the angle formed between v-bar 
and tuning pin could do it.  
   While I'm at it, this plate is really heavy in the capo section, with 
holes through the casting for each tri-chord.  I haven't had time to examine it, 
but I wonder what the pressure surface actually is in there.  
 
>> I suspect 
that yours will be fine, if you let it down easy (not the old cutoff wheel 
approach) and at least rescale the treble. How about the soundboard wave. 
There? >>

 Haven't seen the wave, yet, but haven't measured for it.  I usually take the 
tension down on a piano by loosening one string of each note,from top to 
bottom, then doing another.  I don't let them down all the way, since I cut the 
beckets with a hollow punch and a little tension on them helps to get a clean 
cut.  
   After the strings are off, I then carefully back out the screws and bolts 
in a scattered pattern.  I have found some pianos that were built with a 
tremendous amount of flex in the plate and I wondered why they didn't break upon 
assembly.  I ususally find some way of re-installing them with a little more of 
a relaxed and unstressed fit.  Often, it only takes a couple of degrees of 
pinblock tilt to radically reduce the stress on the plate between block and rim.  
  I will be careful, but first I am going to get Carl's scale and see how far 
off this one is.  Will be in touch, and thanks to all that have been here 
before! 
Regards,  
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html