CA in a hurry

[A440A@aol.com]

Barbara asks: 

>>Ed Foote, I believe you wrote about taking pins out and then CAing a 
pinblock to get the block to increase swelling (if I understand that correctly).

 

>> I was wondering if I removed those few spinning pins and carefully applied 
the CA, would I get more holding power?  How long should I wait before 
re-inserting the pins? >>

Greetings,
   In the situation described, this is what I would do: 
  Remove the action.  put paper over the keybed.  Use the thinnest CA glue 
you can find and if you have a long applicator tube,(like the stuff that Piano 
tec comes with),  put the tip on the back of the pin, right down there in the 
plate hole, and squeeze until you see it well up around the base of the pin.  
Allow about 20 minutes to soak in and set up, and try the pin to see how it 
feels.  (CA glue depends on moisture to activate. The moisture creates a very 
mild sulphuric acid which breaks the bond holding the component molecules in the 
glue apart.  Once this happens, the liquid solidifies rapidly.)  
   If this is not sufficient for torque requirements, I would either reapply 
or repin with a larger size.  I wouldn't worry about a crack in a Steinway 
block being made worse by the larger pin, since I have never seen that happen in 
a Steinway. 

   On the job I tried this with, I was restringing with oversize pins and 
found about a dozen or so that were loose.  These were probably the holes that 
the original pins came out badly bent!  Just for insurance, I wetted the bass 
section before stringing.   I did notice a difference in applying the glue to 
the existing pins in a "band-aid" restringing job and the results that came from 
presoaking the holes.  The pre-soaked holes were significantly tighter.  
   I think the added torque comes not from swelling the wood, but rather the 
increased surface area that is presented to the pin by the glue in the wood, 
but I wouldn't want to bet on the accuracy of that observation. 
Good luck,




 
Good luck, 
 



Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html