My First Agraffe Repair

[David Ilvedson]

Robert,

Search the archives for a voluminous collection of agraffe repair info.   I'd make one suggestion.   Before you get out the drill etc, make a tool with a small screwdriver, slightly narrower than the agraffe stem, by cutting a fishtail into it with a file...looks like this:    M   Then with a vice-grip attached, turn counter-clockwise while tapping on the screwdriver head with your tuning hammer.   You will "almost" always get it out that way with little fuss!

David Ilvedson



----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: Robert Scott <robert.scott@tunelab-world.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Received: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 20:16:54 -0500
Subject: My  First Agraffe Repair



>There’s a 1927 Steinway M whose strings are a little rusty.  Even after 
>putting a drop of Protek where the strings go through the agraffe, one of 
>them broke off at the threads while I was lowering the pitch of G#2 (a 
>bichord).  So I guess I will be doing my first agraffe repair job.

>What worries me the most is how to decide whether to put one more 
>half-turn into the agraffe.  I don’t want to leave the agraffe too loose, 
>and I don’t want to tighten it so tight that I break it off.  Ideally, I 
>would like a torque spec so I could use a torque wrench to help me make 
>the decision.  If the agraffe is pointing in the right direction, but the 
>torque is less than X ft-lb, then I will go for another half-turn.  Can 
>anyone tell me what ft-lb limit I should use?  I guess most of you who do 
>this a lot develop a feel for how tight is enough, but I  need to get it 
>right the first time.

>In addition, I also wonder how one goes about centering the drill for the 
>easy-out on the remains of the old agraffe so that threads in the plate 
>are not damaged.  Should I expect to mess them up and just commit to going 
>up from the current 7/32" size to the 1/4" size agraffe by re-tapping the 
>plate?  And even if I don’t mess up the threads, it is usual to run a tap 
>through them anyway just to clean them up before the new agraffe is 
>installed?

>Finally, I managed to remove the old bass strings without cutting them by 
>straightening them just enough to slide through the old agraffe, so that 
>maybe I could re-use the old bass strings.  Is that a reasonable 
>expectation?

>Robert Scott
>Ypsilanti, Michigan
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