another cracked plate question

[Bob Hull]

I have read all most of the cracked plate subject
archives and still don't have quite the info I need.  
So, any thoughts would be appreciated:  
This week I went to tune a Baldwin A (about 33 years
old) and found it a half step low.  It had been many
years since any previous tunings.  The customer showed
me 3 places where the plate had cracked and been
repaired while the piano was quite new.  So figuring
the repairs had held all of these years I set out to
bring it up to pitch, still carefully.  I did not
overshoot 440 but planned to tune it up to 440, see
where it dropped back and tune it there.  During the
process, only raising the pitch about 20 cents at at
time, I found another crack in another place about two
inches from a repaired crack.  I don't think it was
there when I started.  At that point I informed the
customer and abandoned my tuning. I said I would get
back with them about what to do.  They are quite
attached to this piano.

Since it has been cracked and repaired before and now
there is another crack, do you think that repairing
this crack would be futile because it is just a weak
plate?

Could I find another plate that could be used?  The
previous repairs are bulky and messy looking welds
which the customer doesn't like the appearance of. 

Bob Hull

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