I made up a dowel rod with a wide slot cut in the end of it. I chuck the dowel into an electric drill and zip those little rascals on there in just a couple seconds. I think I've seen a similar tool in the supply house catalogs. FWIW: IMHO, diagnosing the problem (service call), scheduling work, ordering elbows, removing all elbows (including the few tough ones), considering the ever-present risk of breaking a whippen, installing new elbows, cleaning up the mess, and regulating lost motion takes quite a bit more than 1.5 hours (at least it does for me). I charge (and get) A LOT more than that for an elbow job. Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- From: "David M. Porritt" <dporritt@mail.smu.edu> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 10:02 AM Subject: RE: Replacing plastic elbows <outside> > It's been a long time since I've done the plastic elbow thing, but I always heated them on. I'd heat the end of the wire with a propane torch then insert it in the elbow, hold it 5 seconds and put it on the table so it will finish setting straight. It's a little faster than screwing them on, and very much easier on the hands, wrists, arms etc. > > dave
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