Steinway Agraffe problem

[J Patrick Draine]

Marshall,
My frazzled memory says: contact Kent Webb at Steinway (718-204-3119) 
<kwebb@steinway.com>. I'm pretty sure that at the Steinway all day 
session in Nashville he outlined a procedure to install a bolt to fill 
the hole, which can then be drilled and tapped for the standard 
agraffee. I believe he outlined the procedure to modify the bolt 
yourself, but he (S&S) can provide the bolt predrilled for the 
agraffee. Anyone else remember this, or is my sleep deprivation getting 
the upper hand?
Patrick Draine (also Boston Chapter)

On Feb 10, 2005, at 10:11 AM, Marshall Connolly wrote:

> I was called in to assess (and hopefully) repair a broken agraffe in a 
> Steinway B at a local college.  The agraffe "malfunction" occurred 
> during the last tuning, and the tuner attempted to drill out the 
> agraffe, but rather than drilling, and using an easy-out to remove the 
> broken portion, she and her husband tried to simply drill out the hole 
> in the plate.
>  
> They drilled with a bit larger than the original agraffe hole, and now 
> even the largest of my agraffe assortment isn't large enough to fill 
> the hole after retapping.  I am left thinking that the only remedy may 
> be to retap and have a machinist fabricate an agraffe, as the Steinway 
> agraffes simply swim around in this hole. 
>   
> Any recommendations about remedying this problem (shy of replacing the 
> plate) would be truly appreciated.
>  
>  
> Marshall Connolly
> Boston Chapter #12836