Billing's flange repairs

[Ron Nossaman]

>I have tuned a friend of mine's piano a couple of times.  Middle C 
>hammer/butt assembly is loose.  The piano has Billing's flanges, which I 
>have never worked with before.  I removed the assembly, and the pinning 
>was loose in the hammer bushings.  After finding the appropriately sized 
>pin to replace it with, I found that I couldn't get it through the "bird's 
>eye" of the flange.
>
>Stupid question # 1,892:  How tightly are the pins supposed to fit in the 
>flange/bird's eye?

Its not only a trick question, it's a trick flange. You won't likely be 
able to press the pin into the flange without spreading it some, which will 
likely break it. This will afford you the opportunity to purchase a new one 
(better get a half dozen), which will be so strangely deformed that you 
will spend far more time, skin, and brain cells trying to get it under 
control than you will justifiably consider appropriate or right. Don't 
worry though, that's the way it is. Spreading the flange allows the pin to 
go in, and installing the flange with the screw clamps the pin in so it 
won't move after the fact. All the other straightening and alignment stuff 
is peripheral entertainment.

Ron N